Hello all, I wanted to write about this topic and I will do it clearly: First of all, I have to say that at the moment I have no luck with my published games, well, maybe with just one. But sometimes it plummets. Where is the main problem in the stores? The implemented system of rankings: I am a teacher and developer at night. I ask my students about their behavior on Google Play and the App Store. The cultural level of the people who access the games is also very important, but of this, I will not speak. I will focus on Google play: 1) 95% of them (my students) do not search on the store, unless they are interested in a very specific topic, but this is usually not the case. They access the main categories and slide through the first 100 or 200 games. They look at the icon, title and captures of these games, and download them. The hundreds of thousands games left behind are forgotten. And that's it. Where is the problem ? The games that are in the top positions of the categories on the stores are those that remain there perpetually. And evidently this is recurrent. Also if a game is in the top positions, it has many weapons with which to win the other games. The key "category" where the developer has to keep a game is the Main -> Popular (trendings) for as long as possible (but it is very difficult) Conclusion: I think the main problem is the system implemented in the store. Games in the first categories are constantly fed back. Why is access to games restricted to 500 positions ? Why not allow the user to slide ideally? The million dollar question: Can a "small" developer place a game in the top positions in the stores? YES How? Making a fairly well-done game and that another charitable developer with a game well positioning (with about 500.000 effective installs of his game) help by advertising to other developers: but that is an utopia. Paying a lot of money with advertising. Luck! I could give more information but at the moment I'm tired of writing, All the best, Mauro
Totally agree with everything you say, the reality is that. It is something like SEO in web pages, those that are always up, are the most visits, and so they stay up. What you should do is work more than the rest, find a niche and take advantage of it. It is not simple at all, especially for small developers with no possibility of investment, but this is it, and can not be changed, Apple and Google are "gods" in this, and other simple mortals.
