NimbleBit co-founder Ian Marsh has revealed that the iPhone Game of the Year accolade awarded to its popular freemium title Tiny Tower at the end of 2011, equates to an extra 16,000 downloads daily.

The free-to-play management sim now has more than a million daily active users, almost doubling from the 600,000 that it had achieved during December.

The game also boasts over 9 million total downloads, with the most recent million having tellingly been downloaded since the award was given.

The second coming

"It is essentially a second launch for the game at the best possible time of the year which is better than anything we could have planned ourselves," Marsh explains.

"Having all those additional players and new fans around will be instrumental in the launch of our next game."

Marsh also revealed that of the past month's downloads, 50 percent of new players have become active users, highlighting the game's growth in popularity since the award was received.

Indeed, since being named Game of the Year, Tiny Tower has not left the iPhone App Store top ten grossing apps.

Marsh has previously revealed that around 5 percent of Tiny Tower players opted to purchase IAPs, with the average amount spent per user set at $10.

[source: Inside Mobile Apps]