As someone who is currently addicted to such iPad games as The Simpsons Tapped Out and GolfStar, I’m quite familiar with the diabolical scheme known as in-app purchases. Simply put, they’re the world’s greatest temptations and they’re the gosh dang devil. But they wouldn’t exist if people didn’t cave in and spend, spend, spend, and there is apparently no greater example of this business model than the No. 1 grossing “free” app, Candy Crush Saga.
According to Think Gaming, Candy Crush Saga is currently raking in an absurd $632,867 PER DAY(!!!) with an estimated 100,000 daily installs and 6,772,996 daily active users. With some simple math, that means that the app’s designer, King, will earn approximately $230 million this year on in-app purchases alone, as daily users are spending an average of $33 over the span of one year. For a game that you can download for free. Amazing.
To put that into perspective, if I had created Candy Crush Saga and was earning $633,000 per day on it, I could buy Qatari Prince Nasser Al-Thani’s glow-in-the-dark Lamborghini each day and still have enough money left over to buy 95,683 Volcano Tacos from Taco Bell. I’m not saying that I would do that, but to have the option would be pretty awesome.
(H/T to 9 to 5 Mac)