I have done a little tiny bit of research (in lieu of actual work)
When Apple’s App Store first launched, every app had a download count. This was soon removed. The only firm numbers we have now are the number of reviews an app has received. Everything else is conjecture.
That said, I sampled various comics apps for various regions. Marvel, DC and Comixology are all built on the same ‘engine’ and material purchased for, say, Marvel, within the Comixology app is also available within the Marvel app (though not the DC app, for obvious reasons). Comics+ is/was the iVerse comics app renamed. Panelfly is a US/iPhone only app. PocketGods is based on iVerse’s comic reader.
|
Region
|
Marvel
|
Comics+
|
DC
|
Comixology
|
Panelfly
|
PocketGods
|
|
US
|
31,795
|
789
|
2,592
|
586
|
616
|
148
|
|
UK
|
6,038
|
132
|
460
|
111
|
|
28
|
|
Japan
|
274
|
21
|
13
|
141
|
|
|
|
Canada
|
3,264
|
107
|
317
|
70
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Total
|
41,371
|
1,049
|
3,382
|
908
|
|
|
I picked US/UK for obvious reasons, Japan since I expected Japan to how a high level of comic consumption and Canada since, I reasoned, it’s part of the North American Comic book market. If I had more time/inclination, I’d'a loved to grab numbers for each region.
The number of reviews is a total, including one star and five star. So includes people who don’t like the app as well as those that do. Arguably, one star reviewers should be dismissed from the count, but since we’ve no idea how many have downloaded it, buy from it but DON’T review (a figure that could be substantially higher) this is the only way to get some notion of numbers
When infurious (who released one of the first comics on the appstore) put out comics, we found we had 200 downloads for 12 reviews. Does this ratio hold up for all of the above? I’ve no idea. I know we pushed to get reviews – but, even then people don’t tend to leave reviews or rate the apps.
Some conjecture:
The Marvel App is the clear frontline winner on number of ratings. I’d put this down, largely, to Apple’s pushing the Marvel app – don’t forget this was one of the first apps available on the iPad and one of the apps that Apple used to demonstrate the iPad on its website. The numbers clearly reflect that.
The top selling comic on the marvel app is Civil War #1 (this is true in each of the regions I checked).
Assuming a sales figure of 40,000 copies (that’s one sold to every single person who rated the marvel app in the US, UK, Japan, Canada) – selling at £1.19
This puts the gross income at £47,600 (BASED ON CONJECTURE!)
Apple take 30% of that, leaving £33,320
Assuming a 50/50 split between comixology and Marvel (which is PURE CONJECTURE – at a guess I’d say 50/50 is very generous to comixology) then Marvel are looking at a take home of £16,660
Which isn’t a bad figure for something that’s already been paid for and for something with fixed production costs – in other words, the more this sells the more production costs, as a percentage, reduce to zero.
Anyway, hope that’s interesting to some.
