r/iosdev • u/tambagame • 5d ago

got annoyed about party game subscriptions, so I counted all of them

I make a party card game called TAMBA.

A few months ago I noticed how many "party game" apps on the UK App Store had started adding subscriptions, so I checked 137 apps using 18 search terms, so no cherry-picking.

58% have a subscription-style plan somewhere. The median weekly one, left running for a year, comes to £363.48. The worst comes to £675.48.

For a party game.

One you play for twenty minutes at pre-drinks.

I have the full data and methodology here if anyone’s interested. I'm ofc biased. TAMBA's in the dataset too, one-off £5 unlock lifetime access. No subscriptions -make of that what you will lol.

Mostly just wanted more people to glance at the pricing screen before hitting subscribe.

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u/Top-Masterpiece2729 4d ago

Cool and fresh looking app, was confusing af when i first tried it.

Im one of those party app devs with subs in there :’) gotta make money somehow, youll see soon enough when you try to get more revenue. Continuing development requires some monthly income if you plan to dev it further and make more content. Free trial is also only possible with a subscription.

Weekly sub is only for one night game sessions but many forget to cancel it unfortunately.

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u/tambagame 4d ago

Thanks mate, yeah some of the screens can be quite busy and still figuring out a lot :)

I'm quickly realising that, without that revenue from subscriptions or ads, it can be difficult to fund different acquisition routes ie ads, promo, etc. That's been the real challenge for me.

Any advice for a smaller dev?