Fishing Joy 2 developer Punchbox has already detailed the game's achievements in China – the title generating revenue of $1.6 million a month in the country alone.

However, according to publisher CocoaChina, which launched the game in the region earlier in 2012, the key to Fishing Joy 2's success can be put down to two things: multiple marketplaces and pulverising piracy.

Numbers game

The company has revealed it pushed the game out via more than 200 different Android app stores in order to gain traction, helping the game hit 5 million downloads to date.

"We achieved great success by broadly distributing this game through more than 200 third-party Android marketplaces, including carrier stores, across China," said CocoaChina's US GM Lei Zhang.

"In addition, we aggressively and diligently monitor key piracy channels to eliminate IP theft and reduce revenue loss."

CocoaChina reports Fishing Joy 2 now boasts a free-to-paid conversion rate of 30 percent in China. Zhang also added that the game's ARPDAU – average revenue per daily active user – also comes in at 40c.

Money matters

"Fishing Joy's 40c ARPDAU is an insanely high number for a casual game title on any platform," he explained.

"Even more impressive, is the fact that this was generated across the Android platform in China, where only six months ago the mobile games industry believed that monetisation was almost impossible."

Naturally, CocoaChina's goal is to use Fishing Joy 2's success as an illustration of the revenues western developers can amass if they take advantage of the firm's "expertise in Android distribution and monetisation."

However, the lesson of Fishing Joy 2, it's suggested, is that a little extra effort – targeting multiple marketplaces and cracking down on p

iracy where possible – can deliver major monetary benefits. In short, the obstacles western studios previously saw as blocking their path to the Chinese market are slowly being eradicated.

"The secret ingredient for monetising the Chinese Android user base at this level and scale is to combine carrier billing with complete coverage of all Android markets," concluded Zhang.