Just the top 10 iOS games rake in more than $13 million in daily revenue

iPad mini 5
iPad mini 5 (Image credit: iMore)

What you need to know

  • Games are hugely successful at monetizing Apple's App Store.
  • The top ten games reportedly rake in more than $13 million every day.
  • Fortnite is the cream of the crop with $2.75 million per day.

Apple's App Store can be a difficult place to make money for so many developers, but not if you're lucky enough to be behind one of its top ten games. According to new numbers provided by Finbold, those games bring in more than $13 million. Every. Single. Day.

That, according to the report, is mostly down to the way in-game videos and ads have proven to be a cash cow for developers willing to fill their games with them.

One aspect that has led to high grossing in mobile games is the growing popularity of free mobile games funded by in-game advertising. More developers are selling ad space to monetize their games. One aspect that has emerged is rewarding video ads, which unlocks game content in exchange for watching an ad.

Many, many games throughout the App Store offer gamers in-game gems, money, and accessories if they watch an ad. But not all games need to go that route to make money – Fortnite, in particular, seems to be doing a pretty decent job without a single ad involved.

But it does have V-Bucks.

Fortnite leads in average daily revenue at $2.75 million followed by Roblox with revenue of $2.40 million. Augmented reality mobile game Pokemon Go ranks third with returns of $1.86 million while Coin Master closely follows at $1.80 million. Candy Crush Saga brings in the fifth-highest daily revenue of $1.42 million.

The same report notes that while Fortnite is the king of the hill in terms of cash, it's Roblox that is proving the most popular as far as installation numbers go. Finbold reckons the game sees more than 21,000 individual installations each day. And considering each of those is a chance to part people from their money, it's easy to see where that $13 million comes from.

Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.