The Apps Awaken: Star Wars Film Drove Revenue to Series' iOS Apps
New data from Sensor Tower found downloads and revenue for Star Wars apps and games increased following the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens in theaters.
App store optimization company Sensor Tower has released new data, which reveals estimated worldwide app downloads and revenue for 22 iOS Star Wars apps and games, following the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens in theaters.
Sensor Tower’s data compared app downloads and revenue for December 18 (the film’s opening day) and December 19 to figures from the previous two Fridays and Saturdays: December 11 and 12, and December 4 and 5. On the two Fridays before the film’s release in theaters, the 22 examined apps generated an average combined revenue of $222,000. On December 18, this number increased to a combined revenue of $335,000.
Of the 22 examined apps, EA’s Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes led in terms of revenue, with $186,000, followed by Konami’s Star Wars: Force Collection at $56,000 and Disney Interactive’s Star Wars: Commander at $43,000.
In terms of worldwide downloads, this figure reached 381,000 on the film’s release day, a 102 percent increase over the average for the two preceding Fridays. Specifically, Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes led with 164,000 downloads, followed by WBIE’s LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga with 41,000 downloads and Star Wars: Commander with 29,000 downloads.
On December 19, one day after the film’s release, combined revenue for the 22 studied apps was $334,000. This is 74 percent higher than the $192,000 average revenue for December 5 and December 12. Combined downloads for the apps reached 566,000 on December 19, up 193 percent from the 193,000 average downloads on the two preceding Saturdays.
In a blog post, Randy Nelson, content manager at Sensor Tower, commented:
There’s no doubting that the estimated $350 million marketing budget for “The Force Awakens” has played a role in escalating buzz around all things Star Wars, but that’s not to say many of the publishers seeing their app revenue and downloads soar are simply riding Disney and Lucasfilm’s advertising coattails.
In fact, our Ad Intelligence platform reveals increased advertising pushes from the three most prominent Star Wars mobile games, Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes, Star Wars: Commander – Galaxy in Conflict, and Star Wars: Uprising. The first two titles were in the top 10 advertisers on Facebook for the week of December 14 through 20, and all three were in the top 25 on the Facebook ad network during that week.
Readers: Have you recently downloaded any Star Wars apps or games?
