How the top mobile games ever fared in their first year

Steven Loeb · September 2, 2015 · Short URL: https://vator.tv/n/3fe6

If you have sub-5 million downloads in the first 12 months, chances are you don't have a hit

Here's the harsh truth: for a game, its entire future is going to depend on its first year. Either you're a hit right out of the gate, or your sunk. 

App Annie came out with its list of the most downloaded games of all time on Tuesday. Let's take a look at where each one was after one year on the market.

#1 Candy Crush Saga - 500M downloads its first year

The most downloaded game of all time is Candy Crush Saga. Released on mobile in November of 2012, by November of 2013 it was downloaded an astounding 500 million times in one year. Impressively, the game has reached the #1 daily top iPhone game ranking in over 100 countries. 

#2 Fruit Ninja - Over 20M in its first year

Fruit Ninja, which comes in at number two on the list, was released in April 2010 and had over 20 million in March 2011.

#3 Angry Birds  - 50M in its first year

Angry Birds had 50 million downloads a year after it first launched. Angry Birds 2, released in July, was downloaded over 20 million times in its first week alone and has now been downloaded 50 million times already. 

#4 Subway Surfers - Over 130M downloads in its first year

The game, which involves endless running, was released in May of 2012, and had 130 million downloads by March of the next year.

#5 Despicable Me - 300M in one year

The game, which was based on the movie that spawned the ever-present Minions franchsise, had 50 million less than a month after its release, 300 million by its one-year anniversary, and surpassed the half a billion mark in early 2015.

#6 Clash of Clans - Unknown

The game's developer, SuperCell, doesn't give out information on download numbers but it is known that Clash of Clans is the most profitable game on mobile. SuperCell's revenue tripled in 2014 thanks to the game.

#7 Temple Run - 100M downloads in one year

Another endless running game, Temple Run was released in August 2011 and had 100 million downloads by by August of 2012.

#8 Angry Birds Rio - Over 120M downloads in its first year

The first sequel on this list, Angry Birds Rio was the thid entry in the series. Released in March of 2011, it set a record when it was downloaded more than 10 million times in 10 days. The game was downloaded 120 million times by January of 2012.

#9 Temple Run 2 - unknown

Here we have the second sequel on our list, and, again, it was not able to live up to the original. Released in January of 2013, it was downloaded 50 million times in less than two weeks. Though the numbers seems to have stopped being broken out at some point, by December of that year the two games combined had been downloaded 500 million times

#10 Words With Friends - 6.5 million in its first year

Hey, remember when Words With Friends was the thing that everyone was playing? That was back when Zynga was still the biggest name in mobile gaming. Oh how times have changed. It is also the exception that proves the rule: released in July of 2009, the game had 6.5 million downloads by June of 2010; it wasn't the game was released on Facebook in 2011 that it really took off. 

Support VatorNews by Donating

Read more from our "Trends and news" series

More episodes