The free version of popular puzzle game Threes has doubled its developers’ profits, as reported by Eurogamer and as Threes developer Asher Vollmer shared in a series of tweets (full collection here).
We released a free version of @ThreesGame one month ago and here’s how it’s doing: It has doubled our daily income. Thanks for playing :)
— Asher Vollmer (@AsherVo) July 20, 2015
It was not a very glamorous game release, but it was a good business decision. Excited to make bigger games now!
— Asher Vollmer (@AsherVo) July 20, 2015
Graphs (with matching y-axises)! On the left: paid profits On the right: ad profits pic.twitter.com/hLv1n1vCo8
— Asher Vollmer (@AsherVo) July 20, 2015
.@NimbleDave a bunch! pic.twitter.com/Q8okZPIG1b
— Asher Vollmer (@AsherVo) July 20, 2015
@danielben Roughly the same actually! So our total profits doubled.
— Asher Vollmer (@AsherVo) July 20, 2015
It’s interesting to look at the stats for the platform split of iOS vs. Android. The majority of free users also comes from iOS.
Making a free version of a paid game with ads may not be the most elegant decision, but it’s a practical one when you want to attract an audience that doesn’t have disposable income to spend on games.