Halfbrick CMO Phil Larsen has revealed that the free version of Fruit Ninja is currently generating more than $400,000 revenue a month from in-app ads.

Speaking to Ad Age, Larsen said the figure represents a decent amount of income for the firm, though isn't excessive given the franchise's popularity.

Indeed, the developer actually works with mobile ad exchange Mobclix to moderate the kind of ads displayed in game, actually curtailing the amount on money they could bring in for the benefit of players.

Bad ads?

"We want as much control as possible, but the more control you have, the more micromanagement that is needed and we don't have the bandwidth in-house nor do we really want it," said Larsen.

As a result, "spam ads for dating sites and things like that" from Mobclix's platform are blocked in Fruit Ninja, limiting the ad revenue generated for Halfbrick as a result.

Despite the free version's popularity, however, Larsen said the studio still makes more money from paid downloads.

"People see ad content and free content rising and think it must be at the expense of paid [apps]," he continued, claiming all versions of Fruit Ninja bring in a total of more than $1 million a month in revenue.

"At this stage for us, it's not true."

Total Fruit Ninja downloads passed the 300 million mark back in May, with Halfbrick dubbing it "one of the world's most recognisable brands in mobile gaming" as a result.

[source: Ad Age]