Crossy Road has generated $10 million in revenue since the mobile game launched back in November 2014.
Indie dev company Hipster Whale released the new figures today at GDC in San Francisco, outlining the massive success of the hit mobile title.
According to co-founders Matt Hall and Andy Sum, the game has been downloaded upwards of 50 million times, helping rake in $3 million of revenue solely from advertising.
Hall reportedly described himself as ‘happily surprised’ (via Polygon) at the success of Crossy Road.
The dev talked up the studio’s relaxed approach to promoting in-app purchases, helping avoid the freemium trap many mobile developers fall into.
“If you make a game that’s only about business, you’re going to get Candy Crush clones,” explained Hall.
The game is minimalist in its design; it riffs heavily on 80s arcade classic Frogger, whereby players guide their characters across roads, dodging oncoming traffic as they go.
Players rack up currency merely by playing the game; those digital dollars can then be spent on buying new characters.
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“Obviously, $10m is fantastic. That’s way, way, way, way, way more than we thought we would get. But someone on the free-to-play business would look at those numbers and think we could make a lot more per user,” Hall continued.
“But, if we change it…if we followed some of those best practices…if we sold coins and had a ‘save-me’ button and it felt like the other games, would anyone have cared?”
It’s refreshing to hear developers talk about actively avoiding the freemium status quo, and it’s clear staving off rampant in-app purchase practice can still result in a successful business model. As long as the game is actually good, that is…
