How Much MONEY I made from 1.5 MILLION DOWNLOADS as an Indie Game Dev

Being an indie game developer is tough. It is even tougher trying to make a full time living from it. In this video I share my journey as a full time game dev and also give some insights into the revenue earned while achieving the milestone of 1 million downloads.

[NewHopeGames]

Well, I'd say just short of 500k in around 6 years overall is a large success for any indie dev, that's like averaging over 83k a year so congrats on that. Problem I found with freemium and free mobile games after doing this for over 12 years, there's just far too much design effort going into monetization. So us, as indie devs, we have to design these games based on that. I find it ruins the player experience. Im sure you've heard the famous..."too many ads" and 1 star review complaint several times. What these players don't understand is, in order for a game to be free to play, it has to be monetized. We as indie devs can't afford to work for free and if they want to continue to get free games, the least they can do is watch a reward ad or two. Not to mention all the dev maintenance that comes with freemium games, it's just far too much. So for these reasons, i'm stepping more into premium and PC games, one price = full game. I feel I can develop better games if I don't have to worry about monetization then the extra bonus of dropping freemium, far far less dev maintenance. Now, downside of premium is, actually selling the game on a mobile market that's mostly free games. So I plan to mostly move on to PC for many of my future titles. As for you, i think you're doing well, so you are in the right spot for now. As of today for me, I only have about 350k downloads combined on all my games published on the Google Play Store, sadly after 12 years. I will still publish to the mobile market, but my future focus has changed.

[akshayrajareddy]

Great video as usual mate ! Cool animations 💯

[ytravi]

Oh that idea to get a recognition trophy from Google and Apple for 1 million downloads will be amazing :D

[RatherBeCancelledThanHandled]

Really impressive, congrats .

I’ve shipped 4 mobile apps but I’ve only made lunch money.

What exactly is the cash tournament ? your money method. I never heard of this. Thanks for sharing this video the transparency motivates me to keep trying.

[sirdelli]

How to get organic install? How to write Aso efective? How to put keyword correctly?

[donjohnson]

Do you publish/market mobile games for developers? Do have any advice for single developer finishing there first game and looking to make living from it? Or, Can you recommend publishers for a single game developers?

[martinlasek]

Background music is a liiiittle too loud. I want to hear you and primarily listen to what you have to say :)

[leonnoirsr]

Forget the champagne and the accolades from Apple. Half a mill is a great achievement!!

[sharkcraftAnimation]

that coo; video bro
could you please expline this network and what deffrant then admob ?
and if this network can use in games for children
thank you

[mahmoudhhammdybakheet]

I know you are very busy to read a long comment but I really need help I left my job to be a game developer and I think it's worth it but I don't understand what to do after I publish my game to get this traffic my game got only 60 downloads in four month I tried aso but no results

[mikhailhumphries]

What engine did you use and what's the name of your game?

[skroudge]

I am also an Indian game designer.do you want make a game together?

[jakesanchez]

It depends on the cpm price rate per country. People should not rely too much on consistent numbers.

[robert]

i think that 1M downloads is hard to reach ofc, but is not that much in genereal for them.

[VinnyKoder]

bro please make one game for me any small game i pay for it please reply

[hansfritz]

Is this revenue only from skillz ? Or also from ads and IAP'S

[quissy]

Don't buy into this shit, or at least give it some thought when someone's going into this much effort just to advertise their free ebook to a few thousand people, without ever referencing a single one of his many games.

[rrwlubz]

Why cant you give link to your game ? Or the numbers u r giving are fake ? 😢

[michalrv]

Your ultrawide angle is a little excessive

[STaaaS]

This is fake. do not be seely.anyone can change the analytics knowing only html. he didn't even show his game (which is already very strange) only a link to his ridiculous book, which you will run to buy immediately after watching the video.