Survey Says Median iOS Game Revenue $2,400 – Average $86,315 Per Game Last 12 Months
I’ve seen a lot of iOS developer surveys – most are just fluff designed for you to check out a specific development or advertising platform without any real developer data shared.
This survey is different.
Over 250 independent game developers were surveyed (and this was an in-depth survey not a simple poll turned into a 20 page pdf!).
Significant Results
Taken by Streaming Color games, here are the most interesting and useful and somewhat inspiring numbers:
- Over 60% Of Those Surveyed Were Not Full-Time Game Developers
- The mean average revenue from those surveyed was $165,121. $86,315 average per game in sales and non-sales revenue the past 12 months.
- The median revenue per game was $2,400 in sales and non-sales revenue.
- Median Non-sales revenue (advertising, affiliate links, etc.) was higher than sales revenue
- Games developed by multiple developers yielded significantly higher returns per developer (until the team size reached 10 or more developers)
Conclusions
If you’re not taking advantage of advertising and other income then there’s a good chance you’re missing out.
A $2,400 median per game for the last 12 months is ridiculously good when you consider the median quality of games in the app store and other channels for indie game distribution, and with an $86,315 avg. per game the big paydays are definitely out there.
Going it alone doesn’t seem to pay off and getting together with a few buddies is good – just don’t let everyone you know in on things 
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what the hell is median revenue ?
The revenue at the middle point. For example, if you had 9 numbers.. the 5th number right in the middle would be the median.
From wikipedia –
“The median of a finite list of numbers can be found by arranging all the observations from lowest value to highest value and picking the middle one.”
That’s Angry Birds getting $10m and everyone else getting $100.
Well, clearly the numbers favor a few developers… but a median of $2,400 for indie game develoeprs — is pretty high.
I remember the “average” for xbox live games being shared, and only being just over $1,000.. for iOS with this survey it was $86k+… and when you look at most flash game sponsorships selling out for under 1k….
Not that it’s much of a shocker that iOS numbers would be the highest for indie game devs.