Chair Entertainment's Infinity Blade II was recently given away during the App Store's fifth birthday celebration, and the promo has turned into a boom business for Chair.
Based on the 5.7 million downloads that Infinity Blade II saw during the week-long promotion, Chair could have pocketed $27 million in sales after Apple's cut.
Instead, the firm gave a $6.99 game away for free.
Revenue winner
But it turns out that the exposure at being featured had a noticeable uptick in the weekly revenue generated by the game.
Setting aside the ancillary revenue generated by downloads of the original Infinity Blade and the Infinity Blade: Awakening e-book, Distimo reports that Infinity Blade II's weekly revenue was still more than double the figure generated in the week before the promotion.
"Despite the free offer, this game generated 2.4 times as much revenue as in the week before the free promotion," detailed Distimo.
"This case shows that offering an application for free and passing on the one-off revenue from direct purchases can still have a positive effect on the overall revenue due to in-app purchases, supporting also results of our previous research."
Curiously, Chair Entertainment's publicist Laura Mustard downplayed the uptick in in-app purchase expenditures for Infinity Blade II following the promotion.
"While we normally notice an increase at times when we've done free promotions, we don't think it's significant, because the game is balanced in a way that does not require any IAP," concluded Mustard.
[source: Distimo]
News
US Correspondent
Representing the former colonies, Matt keeps the Pocket Gamer news feed updated when sleepy Europeans are sleeping. As a frustrated journalist, diehard gamer and recovering MMO addict, this is pretty much his dream job.
Top Stories
News
May 11th, 2024
PocketGamer.biz Podcast Week in Views E11 - Xbox in turmoil, Krafton champions AI development, and Apple's iPad challenge
News
May 10th, 2024
Unity says restructure that saw mass layoffs is now complete as it posts Q1 2024 revenue decline
News
May 10th, 2024
Week in Views - Xbox's mobile games store is doomed to fail, Sonic meets the Angry Birds, and Apple's iPad problem
Feature
May 10th, 2024
New release roundup: The best new mobile games from a round of roguelikes to a Sonic surprise
Events
Valencia Indie Summit 2024 | Europe | May 16th |
Digital Dragons | Europe | May 19th |
GamesBeat Summit 2024 | North America | May 20th |
Mobidictum Meetup Tallinn May 2024 | Europe | May 21st |
Nordic Game Spring 2024 | Nordic | May 21st |
Impact 2024 - Indie Games | May 23rd | |
Israel Mobile Summit 2024 | Middle East | Jun 6th |
Future Games Show 2024 | Jun 8th |