Solipskier Devs Show Game's iOS Sales Outpacing Web Ad Revenue

Mikengreg, the two-man development team behind action skiing game Solipskier, have revealed statistics showing sales on Apple's App Store far outpacing ad and sponsorship revenue for the game's free-to-play web version. The indie duo's transparency helps other creators gauge possibilities for success for their titles, and in the two months since the game's release, the pair made over $70,000 from sales of the iOS version of the game -- compared to just over $16,000 in revenue from the free-to-play Flash version. Despite attracting nearly 4 million pageviews and over 15 million plays for the free-to-play web version in its first month of availability, Solipskier generated just over $1,000 in incremental ad revenue over its entire two month run so far, the developer reported. Notably, the vast majority of free-to-play revenue came from a $15,000 sponsorship deal with GameStop-owned web game portal Kongregate, which is branded within the game with its logo as a result. On the App Store, the iPad and iPhone game attracted over 1,800 sales on launch day before slowly declining over the next two months. Single-day sales spikes accompanied coverage in blogs including Engadget, and the title continues to sell quite robustly. A link from popular French iPhone gaming blog iPhon.fr helped make France the best-selling foreign language country for Solipskier, and contributed to an unexpectedly strong international performance that made up nearly half of the total sales for the totally unlocalized game. The developers theorized this success might have to do with the game's relative simplicity and ease to pick up without reading a tutorial. Developers of all stripes have increasingly been experimenting with free-to-play revenue models for their games, often supporting their efforts with sales of in-game items as well as advertising.