Feature

Opinion: Licences on the rise on iOS while original IP opportunities are shrinking fast

What we learned from Apple's 2012 top grossing list

Opinion: Licences on the rise on iOS while original IP opportunities are shrinking fast
Apple's significance in the mobile games industry maybe in comparative decline, but it's still the majority of most company's revenues.

That's why it's worth taking the time to consider trends from the announcements of the games that performed best on the App Store in 2012.

Big Five

Looking at five of the biggest western markets (US, UK, Canada, France and Germany), it's clear which titles made the most money.

Kabam's Kingdom of Camelot: Battle for the North was the top grossing game in the US on iPhone, for example.

And in total, it featured in seven out of a possible ten top grossing charts (we researched the top five top grossing games in the five countries for iPhone and iPad).

EA's The Simpsons: Tapped Out also featured in seven top grossing top fives, while Supercell's Clash of Clans, Backflip's DragonVale (the top grossing game on iPad in the US) and Playtika's Slotomania featured in five.

New sensations

If we consider all the games which appear in these top five top grossing charts in these five countries, we can see how quickly the doors of opportunity for new IP is shutting - in terms of having global success.

Only three games that used original IP and were released in 2012 feature.

Clash of Clans and Hay Day from Finnish developer Supercell are the headliners in terms of breakout success during the year, but let's not forget that Supercell was set up by a very experienced team and was very well funded by VC money.

The only other original game released in 2012 to find such success was Cygames' Rage of Bahamut (top 5 in US iPhone top grossing chart) and it had the marketing and distribution power of DeNA behind it.

Last year's love

There is some hope in terms of original content from previous years, though.

Backflip's DragonVale was released in 2011, but continued to perform strongly in 2012, while German developer Xyrality has made the most of the local audience, with its 2011 release Lords & Knights - Medieval Strategy MMO appearing in the top grossing charts for iPhone and iPad in Germany.

Looking at the other top grossing games, however, the patterns are clear to see.


  • Kingdom of Camelot - based on an existing web game with millions of players

  • The Simpsons: Tapped Out - TV licence

  • Slotomania - casino game, released in 2011

  • Poker by Zynga - casino game, released in 2010

  • Ice Age Village - film licence

  • The Sims: FreePlay - game licence, released in 2011

  • Smurfs' Village - book/TV/film licence, released in 2011


Slowly setting

Things are even more locked down when you look at the titles featuring in the top paid charts in these five countries.

Of a possible 50 positions, Rovio takes 21 with various Angry Birds releases, with other publishing giants feature strongly. Disney has eight positions with Where's My Water?, while Zynga/OMGPOP's Draw Something has six.

More surprisingly, games from 2011, 2010 and even 2009 are still doing well on the paid charts, with Halfbrick's Fruit Ninja and Lima Sky's Doodle Jump (in Germany) and EA's Tetris (in France) featuring.

Other strong brands demonstrating their longevity include EA's Scrabble, FIFA and Real Racing and Gameloft's Asphalt.

Nevertheless, not one of the games in the top five top paid charts also appear in the top five of the top grossing charts, demonstrating how important free-to-play is as a business model.

Inflexion point

Of course, given the high level of success we're considering - some these titles will have generated tens of millions of dollars during 2012 - various subtleties of the iOS market will have been overlooked.

Yet, the promise of digital publishing has always been focused around the big hit, not the long tail, which for too many developers has proven not to wag strongly enough to produce meaningful revenues, no matter how long it is.

So the irony is that while the big hits continue to get ever bigger on iOS, the opportunity for the vast majority of developers to gain a share is shrinking fast.

Contributing Editor

A Pocket Gamer co-founder, Jon is Contributing Editor at PG.biz which means he acts like a slightly confused uncle who's forgotten where he's left his glasses. As well as letters and cameras, he likes imaginary numbers and legumes.