Android Vs. iOS: One Developer Reports

Pocket Legends is a pretty cool MMO.

While many developers have put their bet on iOS, at least one developer is reporting that they make far more money from Android than from the iOS version of their game. Spacetime Studios makes the Pocket Legends 3D MMO for both Android and iOS, and they report that Android downloads are running about 9,000 per day versus 3,000 to 4,000 per day for iOS. Which is significant since they make money mostly from in-app purchasing, so having a large number of apps downloaded is important.

Here's the interesting part: Android users generate 30% to 50% more revenue per day from in-app purchases than iOS users, despite the fact that in-app purchasing on Android is a jury-rigged affair right now. (Google will debut built-in in-app purchasing for Android this May.) Even more interesting, Android users click on ads at three times the rate that iOS users do (Spacetime also uses ads to generate revenue).

I'm not sure why they are doing so much better on Android; perhaps it has to do with their marketing efforts. It's an interesting object lesson that you can't always predict revenue for a platform purely by the number of users or unit sales of hardware.