It seems that the future of triple A on iOS is uncertain to say the least, given that some of the major launches in recent months appear to have performed poorly, both in terms of downloads and in terms of sales. Let’s talk about the various ones Assassin’s Creed, Resident Evil and Death Stranding. In short, there are few who download them to play the trial version and even fewer who purchase them after doing so, for amounts that vary between 15 and 50 dollars.
Resident Evil 4, Resident Evil 7, Death Stranding and Assassin’s Creed Mirage, among the major titles presented by Apple during its conferences, caused a lot of attention but few results, so much so that Mobile Gaming.biz hypothesizes that Apple itself pays the publishers to carry out the conversions.
Very low numbers
According to the estimates of the same newspaperbased on data from Appfigures, fewer than 3,000 people paid $49.99 for Assassin’s Creed Mirage when it launched on June 6. Overall, the game was apparently downloaded 123,000 times, bringing in $138,000 in revenue. It’s important to note that the game is only playable on the iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, and high-end iPad, which is certainly a smaller audience than Apple’s device owners overall.
In short, Assassin’s Creed Mirage would have done a negligible result compared to many free-to-play games. For comparison, Appfigures highlighted the data from Assassin’s Creed Rebellion, an Ubisoft title designed specifically for mobile devices, which at launch on November 21, 2018, was downloaded 1.9 million times in a period of time comparable to that in which Mirage it reached just 123,000 installations, for revenues of $981,000.
Other highly popular titles such as Resident Evil 4, Resident Evil Village and Death Stranding, all shown during Apple conferences, they suffered the same fate. Estimates from Appfigures suggest that Resident Evil 4 has been downloaded 357,000 times, earning an estimated $208,000. Considering the game’s price of $29.99, this means that approximately 7,000 people have downloaded it and paid to unlock the entire game in its six months on the market. Resident Evil Village performed even worse, with Appfigures estimating 370,000 downloads and only $92,000 in revenue, meaning the number of players who actually paid $15.99 to unlock the entire game is around 5,750.
Death Stranding by 505 Games is a premium game, with an initial cost of $20. It has not yet generated enough downloads to be recorded by Appfigures’ tracking databut some quick calculations based on revenue estimates of $212,000 suggest it has downloaded around $10,600 since launch on January 29, 2024.
Appmagic, another analysis company, provided more optimistic estimates, but still not very reassuring on the state of these stocks. According to its data (all net of the store manager’s cut), Assassin’s Creed Mirage would have produced revenues of $221,000 on 279,000 downloads (5,750 sales at $49.99). Resident Evil 4 would have been downloaded 710,000 times, for $347,000 in revenue (15,000 sales at $29.99). Resident Evil Village would have been downloaded 817,000 for $420,000 in revenues (34,000 sales at $15.99). Death Stranding, which is a premium game, would have produced $348,000 in revenue, for 23,000 purchases.
In short, we are at enormous distances from the numbers made by the same games on traditional market platforms, i.e. PC and consoles, and at sideral distances from the numbers of the great mobile successes.
