Rage of Bahamut, the social card battle game offered through Mobage‘s international network, has proven to be a smash hit – and a money printing machine.
It’s not known how successful exactly (from a financial perspective) the game is, but there are a few pointers that lead to a pretty good estimate.
First, a quick Rage Of Bahamut chronology.
DeNA/ngmoco released the title, developed by Tokyo-based Cyberagent company Cygames, in English in late February this year – on Android first.
After slowly climbing up the top grossing app ranking in Google Play (in the US), Rage Of Bahamut hit the No. 1 spot in the last week of April.
On May 15, DeNA released an iOS version in English, which topped Apple’s top grossing app ranking on June 12 (in the US). For a short period of time, likely for a few hours, Rage Of Bahamut was the No. 1 money-making game on both platforms.
The game slipped a bit in the App Store after that (it’s the No. 4 grossing iOS app currently), but it still is the biggest money maker among all Android apps out there.
But how much revenue is Rage Of Bahamut actually generating?
DeNA isn’t disclosing any numbers, but now Japanese business publication The Nikkei is reporting that according to a source close to the company, Rage of Bahamut pulled in over 100 million yen (US$1.3 million) in monthly sales in April – on Android alone, excluding the Japanese version.
That’s US$43,000 per day – is that realistic?
The short answer is yes: 2 weeks ago, TechCrunch quoted ngmoco’s Neil Young as saying that while hit mobile games can usually rake in 15 to 25 cents per DAU per day, Rage Of Bahamut is doing “4-5 times” that number, meaning somewhere between US$0.60 and US$1.25 per DAU per day.
If we assume the number is somewhere in the middle – or around US$1 -, a total of 43,000 or so DAU for a top Android game isn’t out of this world.
How realistic is the number when compared to other apps?
The top grossing Android app in May 2011, for example made US$640,000 – in other words 50% as much as the Mobage title, according to Inside Mobile Apps.
The difference stems from higher ARPU or ARPPU in the case of Rage Of Bahamut, as hinted at by Young. The Nikkei source says that monetization for this specific title is very similar to that in Japan, which would confirm Young’s statement. (As a third source, DeNA CEO Isao Moriyasu has been repeatedly stressing the similarity in KPI between the US and Japan for Rage Of Bahamut as well.)
So outside Japan, Rage Of Bahamut is probably making US$1.3 million/month on Android, or US$43,000 a day, or around $1 per day per DAU. What about the iOS version?
As TechCrunch‘s headline states that the game is making about as much money on Android as on iOS (whereas many other apps see significantly weaker monetization on Android), it’s safe to assume that the monthly revenue coming from Rage Of Bahamut for iOS and Android combined is somewhere around US$2.6 million currently.
And as the Nikkei article suggests the estimate is for the US version alone, overall sales (including Europe and other regions) are probably higher.
Here is why:
On iOS, Rage Of Bahamut is currently
- the No. 6 money maker in Canada and the Netherlands
- the No. 8 in Sweden and the UK
- the No. 11 in France
- and the No. 12 in Australia (the list could go on).
- the top grossing app in France, the Netherlands and Sweden
- the No. 2 in Germany
- the No. 3 in the UK
- the No. 11 in Spain.
Overall, I think it’s safe to say that monthly sales (on a global level) for the title probably come close to US$3 million at the moment, not counting Japan.
