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Game Center userbase over 1.5 million

Getting a fix on social figures

Game Center userbase over 1.5 million
Apple might not be willing to serve up official usage figures for Game Center yet, but it is possible to work out – albeit crudely – just what titles are proving popular on the social network.

That's exactly what Mobile Entertainment has done, piecing together usage numbers for 20 of the most popular Game Center titles on the App Store thanks to the open nature of some of the platform's stats.

Bonkers for birdsAs such, the most popular game appears to be Rovio's Angry Birds, the game – which has reportedly sold around 6.5 million units to date [actually it's much higher] – registering more than 1.5 million players on the game's leaderboard.

That's an end user to Game Center user conversion rate of around 24 percent.

Fellow Chillingo release Cut the Rope – importantly launched months after Game Center's debut – has a more impressive split, with more than 63 percent of the title's 1 million strong userbase using the network.

Finding a patternElsewhere, however, the numbers vary. Indeed, it's fair to say that the website's figures suggest there's been no universal take up of the platform, despite it coming pre-installed on all recent handsets.



Several titles in the site's survey – Fruit Ninja, Enigmo and Diner Dash - have attracted around 6 percent or less of the game's total userbase to Game Center, while more than half have total leaderboard numbers of 100,000 users worldwide or less.

Nonetheless, it appears the popular titles users now associate with iPhone – including the likes of Flight Control, Farmville et al – have managed to cross the divide, suggesting there is some, albeit loose, correspondence between the overall popularity of a game and the wealth of its presence on Game Center.

[source: Mobile Entertainment]

With a fine eye for detail, Keith Andrew is fuelled by strong coffee, Kylie Minogue and the shapely curve of a san serif font.