App Annie is excited to announce the launch of the UK App Annie Index. The App Annie Index is a well-established resource informing app publishers’ worldwide strategy. With the launch of the UK App Annie Index, we give you an in-depth look at what’s driving one of the key markets in the app store economy to help drive your business decisions.
The App Annie UK Index for Games details the hottest mobile game properties in the United Kingdom for both the iOS App Store and Google Play. To find out what’s hot in other apps outside of games, please check out the UK App Annie Index for Apps. For more information on top games and publishers around the world, see the worldwide, United States and China charts for June.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. The Technology Behind the Index
The information contained in this report was compiled from App Annie Intelligence, the leading market data solution for the app store economy. To see how our app store download and revenue estimates can help guide your critical business decisions, take a tour or request a demo today.
For the complete list of June’s top apps and publishers, click the chart above.
2. This Month’s Top Performers
Football Fever Spreads to Games
The FIFA World Cup was a huge event for mobile apps, and also saw the UK’s mobile gamers take to their devices to emulate (or hopefully better) their heroes. The big winner in June was Miniclip’s Soccer Stars. The table football game was released in early June, reaching the Top 10 iOS games downloads for the month. It also contributed to Miniclip’s rise in the Google Play publisher download ranks. The game was featured on the home page of both the iOS App Store and Google Play around kickoff of the World Cup. Miniclip’s Head of Mobile, Sergio Varanda, gave App Annie some insight into its success:
“We are delighted to see that Soccer Stars™ has been so popular – with head-to-head matches taking just a couple of minutes to complete, the app proved to be the game of choice for the downtime between World Cup games. We saw clear peaks of activity during half-time and pre/post-game. Soccer Stars™ was released just before the start of the World Cup and enjoyed the swell of hype around the tournament. This led to [!the!] featured on the iOS App Store and Google Play, which saw rapid growth among our player base.
We also cross-promoted Soccer Stars™ on our website Miniclip.com, from which we were able to drive huge numbers to the app page. Combined with the popularity of the game on our social media channels, this really emphasized the huge appetite among our players for casual multiplayer experiences. The success of Soccer Stars™ also saw an increase in engagement with 8 Ball Pool™, giving further evidence that cross-promotion of games within your own network is not a zero-sum game and that our audience is willing to engage with multiple games at the same time. Leveraging our existing fan base to drive engagement with our other games is something Miniclip has been doing well since 2010.” --Sergio Varanda, Head of Mobile at Miniclip
Miniclip made the most of the FIFA World Cup with the release of Soccer Stars.
June saw a number of other football games make an impact in the UK app stores. News Corp’s fantasy football game Dream Team reached the Top 10 Google Play games by monthly downloads, while publisher Nordeus made significant revenue strides on Google Play as football manager game Top Eleven made gains in June. EA’s FIFA 14 also saw a notable rise, entering the Top 10 games by combined monthly iOS and Google Play downloads.
Bubble Witch Saga 2 Enchants the UK Charts
King released the latest installment in its Bubble Witch Saga puzzle franchise in early June, two years after the original was released. It made an immediate impact on the worldwide charts, but was particularly successful in London-headquartered King’s home market. The game finished the month at the top of the charts for monthly game downloads in the UK on Google Play, and in the top three on iOS. In doing so, it out-performed the original entry in the franchise. As it did in most countries, Bubble Witch Saga 2 received high ratings in the UK, reflecting its positive reception.
Bubble Witch Saga 2 rose to the top of the Google Play game download charts in June.
In general, King’s games performed strongly in the UK in June, particularly on Google Play where they occupied three of the top four positions by monthly games revenue. The expanding catalogue of high-performing games brings further positive news for King, after they recently announced record mobile quarterly revenue in Q1 2014 and a decreasing dependence on Candy Crush Saga for revenue.
Kim Kardashian Crosses The Pond
Four newly released titles featured in the top iOS games by UK downloads in June, but only one had star power to help propel it into the limelight — Glu’s Kim Kardashian: Hollywood. With its high-profile celebrity backing, Kim Kardashian: Hollywood gained exposure in a huge array of media prior to release, including everything from The Mirror to The Independent in the UK. All the buzz helped it rise to the top download ranks in the UK, and placed it within the top charts for the month, despite only being released on June 24. However, it wasn’t just celebrity and marketing that kept Kim Kardashian: Hollywood in the top ranks. The game was also a hit with players, with an overwhelming majority of five-star ratings.
3. More Movers and Shakers
Family Guy’s Quest for Revenue Success
Family Guy The Quest for Stuff and its publisher TinyCo moved up the UK monthly game revenue ranks on both Google Play and the iOS App Store in June. The game, based on the animated TV series, features city-building gameplay reminiscent of fellow TV tie-in The Simpsons™: Tapped Out. The UK proved to be a key market for Family Guy The Quest for Stuff, finishing June as its top market on both iOS and Google Play. Throughout late May and June, a number of special events were conducted on the iOS version of the game, which coincided with peaks in the game’s daily grossing ranks.
Clash of Clans Climbs Even Higher
After sitting second in the UK iOS and Google Play revenue ranks behind Candy Crush Saga for a considerable time, Clash of Clans claimed the top spot for monthly revenue in June on both stores. The future continues to look bright for Clash of Clans as it experienced a significant rise in UK downloads on both stores. This rise began in mid-May on iOS and Google Play, with Clash of Clans maintaining its higher download ranks throughout June.
Worldwide Successes Hit the UK Charts
A number of games and publishers that featured prominently worldwide also featured in the UK charts in June. These included Angry Birds Epic, Rovio’s turn-based fantasy RPG addition to the Angry Birds franchise, Betaworks One’s Dots sequel TwoDots, 2048 publisher Ketchapp’s touch-and-drag endless runner The Line, and Halfbrick with its limited time free download offer on iOS. The Line was particularly successful in the UK, claiming the top spot for monthly iOS game downloads. Publisher Ketchapp also took the opportunity to promote its other recent hits in-game with 2048 and White Tile skins.
For those of you who are also looking for an update on top apps outside of games, please check out the UK App Annie Index for Apps. To keep up-to-date with all the changes at the top of the app and publisher charts, check out the complete set of App Annie Index tables.
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Notes:
- The publisher and app rankings reported in the App Annie Index are based on the download and revenue estimates available through App Annie Intelligence. The daily rank history charts and the home page feature app data are available to all users through App Annie’s app tracker solution, Store Stats.
- While the Index for Games covers games, the Index for Apps provides app tracking on everything but games. Note that the Top Company rankings in the Index for Games are based solely on the publishers’ games downloads and revenue, while the Top Company rankings in the Index for Apps are based on the company’s downloads and revenue from apps excluding games.
- Through September 2013, similar versions of the same app with different names (e.g., NYTimes and NYTimes for iPad) were ranked separately. Effective with October data, similar versions of the same app with different names are unified (e.g., NYTimes and NYTimes for iPad are now aggregated and ranked as a single NYTimes unified app).
- Company and unified app rankings in the App Annie Index for Games and Index for Apps are based on individual apps that ranked in the Top 1,000.
- In the first month in which an app becomes unified, its rank change in the Index will compare the unified app that month vs. its highest-ranking individual app in the month prior. As a result, rank changes for newly unified apps may overstate ranking increases from May 2014 to June 2014.
- In the iOS App Store, an app can be categorized under a Primary Category as well as an optional Secondary Category. If an app has a Primary Category of Games and a Secondary Category of Entertainment, it is a candidate to be included in this Index for Games. If the app’s Primary Category is Entertainment and its Secondary Category is Games, then it will not be included in this Index for Games; it is a candidate for the Index for Apps.
- Note that the ranking approach used in the App Annie Index differs from that used in the iOS App Store. In the latter, app rankings for a given category will include all apps whose Primary Category or Secondary Category matches that given category. So an app can appear in the rankings for more than one category within the iOS App Store or in App Annie Store Stats rankings.
- In Google Play, an app can be categorized under only one category, so there is no double-categorization.
- Occasionally, a publisher may decide to shift an existing app from one category to another category. In these cases, the App Annie Index will rank that app based on its categorization in the subsequent month. Given that the App Annie Index has a Games report and an Apps report, the only scenario where an app’s recategorization could shift it from one Index to another is if its category changes from Games to a category other than Games or vice versa.
- In the App Annie Index, all apps and publishers are reported under their parent companies, where available; for example, the Plants vs. Zombies™ 2 app is reported under its parent company Electronic Arts, rather than its direct publisher PopCap. Note that if you view the Electronic Arts parent company page on Store Stats, you will see the publishers that roll under the parent company Electronic Arts, including PopCap. The Plants vs. Zombies™ 2 app will be listed under the PopCap publisher page.
- Company and app rankings are based on the App Annie DNA relationships at the time of publications. App Annie DNA relationships are subject to change over time.
- App Annie Index revenue rankings are based on revenue that the iOS App Store and Google Play earned from paid downloads and in-app purchases. They do not include revenue earned from in-app advertising.
- Certain trademarks and/or images used in this report may belong to third parties and are the property of their respective owners. App Annie claims no rights in such trademarks or images.
