The CGI sequence does a superb job of communicating high production values to the player while also shielding them from a clunky tutorial. Upon opening the app, the player is treated to a CGI sequence that explains the backstory of the game (the player lives in a big city but dreams of owning their own garden coincidentally, a relative of the player recently passed away and has willed their bucolic mansion to the player). Most of the differences seem to focus on one thing: retention. So it’s interesting, then, to consider what sets this game apart from others in the genre that haven’t fared as well. It’s clear that Gardenscapes – New Acres (amongst others) has grown incrementally (and, probably, profitably).
Just 14 (8%) spent at least one day in the Top 1 Downloaded position: The numbers for a Top 50 Grossing position are a little less extreme: over the same time period as above (September 1st 2015 – August 31st 2016), 175 apps had reached a Top 50 Grossing position, but only 37 (21%) of them also spent at least one day in a Top 50 Downloaded position. In a post a few weeks ago, I explored the dynamic between Top Downloaded and Top Chart positioning and found that, of the 72 apps that occupied a Top 20 Grossing position in the past year, only eight reached the Top 1 Downloaded position (and of those, just five remained in the Top 20 Grossing for at least 30 days). Depending on ad monetization and performance in other markets, a Top 50 Grossing position on the iPhone in the US probably translates roughly to $100-150k in gross revenue per day globally across all platforms, which is success by any standard but is an especially abundant result for a mid-sized, private company (according to LinkedIn, Playrix has 175 employees - not small by any means) without a big brand behind it. In other words, since app discovery is “dead”, no small developer can generate appreciable revenues (at least enough to grow their business) without lavishing money on paid user acquisition, and as such, incremental growth is dead.Īnd yet, Gardenscapes has grown to a Top 50 Grossing position (US / iPhone / Overall) without spending heavily (at least by industry standards) on marketing in fact, the game has generated relatively few installs in its post-launch month compared to other games in the genre.
Those who mourn the death of “ app discovery” generally blame it on the fact that the only real means of amassing a user base is through paid user acquisition, and since very large, very rich developers can afford to spend egregious amounts of money buying outsized levels of attention, smaller developers simply can’t compete.
Interestingly, the game never attained a lofty position on the Top Downloaded chart, even at launch: it debuted in the upper 70s and has since declined to the 200s (US / iPhone / Overall): The game has more-or-less consistently held a Top 50 Grossing position overall since then:
#Gardenscapes new acres level 25 series#
The game is apparently the third in the Gardenscapes series (behind Gardenscapes and Gardenscapes 2) and was released globally on Thursday, August 25th, reaching a Top 50 Grossing position (US / iPhone / Overall) about 10 days later, in early September. Gardenscapes – New Acres is a casual game developed by Russian studio Playrix that combines elements of Match 3 gameplay with city building.
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