Do the top selling games get all the money?
A recent discussion prompted me to look into exactly what percent of the game sales revenue is generated by the top selling games. Some people have reported that casual games portals the breakdown is like this:
Top 5 Games 35%
Top 10 Games 60%
Top 20 Games 75%
This was according to the DFC Intelligence and CGA Casual Games Study. I have not seen that study and don't know what data is it based on or how long a period of time they are talking about. But I decided to do a much more specific study of the data in Reflexive Arcade.
The fallowing is based on the actual sales data from the last 12 moths of game sales in Reflexive Arcade. In a 12 months period, the top selling 10 game accounted for 29.5% of the gross revenue generated in that period by all games combined. The top 20 games accounted for 42.6% of the revenue. To get to 75% of the gross revenue you have to include the top 86 games.
Reflexive Arcade 12 month period
Top 5 Games 19.6%
Top 10 Games 29.5%
Top 20 Games 42.6%
Top 30 Games 51.0%
Top 40 Games 57.3%
Top 50 Games 62.4%
Top 60 Games 66.6%
Top 70 Games 70.2%
Top 80 Games 73.2%
Top 86 Games 74.9%
If you look at last month (September 2006) rather than the last 12 months it is slightly more top heavy but still not nearly as bad other sources report. In a 1 month period, the top 20 selling games accounted for 54.0% of the gross revenue generated in that period by all games combined. I sampled a few other months and found very similar numbers.
In other words, each month, half the money is generated by the 20 hottest games that month. But over a 12 months period, half the money is generated by the 30 hottest games of the year. This is not nearly as top heavy of other reports that say 75% of the revenue is generated by the top 20 games.
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