Thanks guys.
Well in that case I'll start off with a boil down on the Square Enix apps that appear in the top 100 highest grossing apps. Tomorrow I will do Sega, who is doing much better than I thought they would be. However, I think Square Enix's recent behavior is probably of more interest to people.
Square Enix currently has five top 100 apps. I've included the rank charts for their complete life cycle, and set all scales to 100 so as to make them more easily comparable. I've also included notes about each title.
Dragon Quest Monsters: Super Light
iOS: Rank 35
Android: Rank 18
Judging by how this game is performing, its revenue (and ability to maintain position top tier positioning) is presumably tied to in game events. Unfortunately I don't speak Japanese, so I can't confirm this, but the swings from the lower 20's to lower 30's (depending on platform) all the way up to rank 3 on iOS and top 5 positioning on android leaves no other logical situation. This suggests people find the events really compelling, but the game doesn't have the kind of critical mass to stay in the top 10 solely on regular stamina and monster spending. Overall, still by far their biggest title.
Final Fantasy Agito
iOS: Rank 36
Android: Rank 65
This game is kind of unusual in that it's a large file size game, runs on a very select number of devices (it requires an iPhone 5 or higher), and is based on a game targeted at the PSP audience. Obviously not the most natural fit for the mobile market, but it seems to be doing all right for now. The reviews for this product are currently toxic, and quite a few of them apparently note it's buggy (notably there seem to have been six patches already) and has aggressive monetization,
but given the way the review chart looks, I have to imagine a lot of the 1 star reviews are driven by FF fans being pissed this is on mobile. Whether or not this remains relatively stable will be interesting to watch, since it's the least obvious fit for a social game, but that also means it stands out. Given this is the most international friendly game of anything on the list, its worldwide performance (if localized) will also be interesting to factor in.
Sengokushi Rumble
iOS: Rank 38
Android: Rank 63 (This is oddly linked incorrectly on App Annie)
This is one of Square Enix's oldest titles to still be a top grossing hit, having released in July 2013. On iOS its position seems to be incredibly linked to events, whereas on Android it's much more stable. However, on Android it's seemingly also only been out since April. Overall, this game's longevity in the top charts is an encouraging sign for Square Enix in terms of being able to actually maintain presence for more than a few months, even if there's clearly been some decay. So far all the other titles on this list have yet to prove that for a 6+ month period.
School Girl Strikers
iOS: Rank 41
Android: Rank 13
This game is another new release that has shot up the charts. While not shown here, it's currently the #3 most downloaded app on iOS in Japan, so there's clearly a huge influx of users. Whether or not they will stick around and keep this game in the top charts is yet to be seen. I'm honestly kind of surprised at how popular it is given it seems to be some kind of...
well just look at this, but we'll ignore that for now. Agito by comparison is much lower in the download charts, so this encouragingly high performance is a good sign that they can at least make games that appeal enough to people for them to download them en masse.
Dragon Quest X
iOS: Rank 67
Android: Rank 58
Yep, this is the iOS/Android cloud version of Dragon Quest X, and it's doing surprisingly well considering what it is. Apparently this was a much better decision than I would have expected. It's obviously not quite up there with the other titles, but hey, it's a streamed MMO on a phone. Nevermind, this is the companion app.
