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App Store Analysis: Average price down, Peggling continuing apace

Monkey Island and Mobsters highest new entries

App Store Analysis: Average price down, Peggling continuing apace
As decades of aging teenagers know, Sunday was the afternoon you'd tune in to the Top 40 music chart countdown.

It's all a bit academic these days, what with downloads, radio plays and the technicalities of what exactly qualifies all muddying the waters.

In contrast, we'd like to say that things on the US App Store are pure as the driven snow. But even here, we don't think the ratings are just based on the number of times each game has been downloaded. Apparently the value of downloads is also factored in. Or not. Who's to say? Apple of course, but it's not telling.

Anyhow, lets get down to some chart action.

Who's Peggling(TM) this week?

Key titles Peggling(TM) their way up the chart this week (data taken 25th July 2009) include Ludia's TV license The Price Is Right which moves up to the number one position, while another of the company's TV licences Hell's Kitchen is in at 78, also on the back of a 99c sale.

Com2uS' Baseball Slugger: Home Run Race 3D jumps 10 places to 23 based on its cut to 99c from $2.99.

Other sale movers worth pointing out include Scoops, which was given away free last Sunday to celebrate US National Ice Cream Day (believe), and jumps 20 places to 59, while IUGO's Star Hogs is up to 70 thanks to a cut from $4.99 to $2.99.

Despite costing $7.99, The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition is the highest new entry at 18, while Playdom's popular MySpace mob game comes to iPhone and iPod touch in the form of Mobsters: Big Apple - 99c - at 28.

Average game price down

One of the significant trends always worth considering is the average price of games. Last time we checked (9th July's Analysis report), the overall average price for the Top 100 US games was $3.20, thanks to the presences of titles such as Rolando 2 and Doom Resurrection: both $9.99.

But as these have dropped out of the chart, so the overall average price has dropped too - down to $2.68.

As before, the price of the top 10 is much lower than the rest of the chart - a mere $1.79. You see Peggling(TM) does actually work.



As you can see above, in terms of breaking down the average price of each set of ten places on the chart (i.e. 1-10, 11-20 etc), the highest average is found between 41-50, thanks to a set of EA and Gameloft titles priced $4.99 and $6.99.

The most expensive games on the chart are The Sims 3 (27) and Real Racing (50) - both $9.99.

In general, there are a lot more 99c games than two weeks ago: 50 games compared to 36 on 9th July.



Is DChoc in the big three?

In terms of the publishers making a statement on the charts, to some degree, it's the usual suspects. EA and Gameloft are neck and neck with 9 game apiece in the top 100, although EA continues to operate at a price advantage, thanks in part to The Sims 3.

However, there is a case for saying Digital Chocolate is the number 3 company in the market: a place that Glu Mobile held in the pure mobile world.



Compared to our previous analysis, Digital Chocolate and PopCap have exactly the same number of games and the same average price as before. Interestingly, iPhone-only publisher ngmoco has completely dropped out thanks to its brave decision to only release Rolando 2 as 3.0 OS game.

Presumably we'll see where it slots back in when the 2.2.1 release for the majority of iPod touch users who haven't upgraded their OSs come onstream.

Until next week then...
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.