The top paid app list in the App Store is fairly static, and if you remember episode #92 where I compared the highest-earning paid apps and free apps, there's not that much money there to begin with.
Which is why I was a bit surprised to see a single franchise take over most of the top paid app list last week. And it continued into this week so I just had to do some digging.
Five Nights at Freddy's is a series of horror games that take place in a haunted pizzeria that was released in 2014 and went viral outside of the App Store and Google Play.
A few weeks ago, Five Nights at Freddy's 1-4 + SL, all paid games that cost $2.99 (in the U.S. App Store) took over the top paid app list. As of right now, they're still in command ranking just below Minecraft.
We estimate that together, the 5 games that are at the top of the chart, have earned more than $1.2M of net revenue in the U.S. across the App Store and Google Play. That's an amazing haul for a collection that's nearly 7 year old and hasn't been updated in more than a year.
December saw a curious split: downloads dropped 2% while revenue sat at $1.3B. ChatGPT and TikTok dominated both charts as the mobile industry enters a new maturity phase.
Wall Street bet $2 billion on Polymarket, and downloads surged 1,172% in December. The prediction market banned in 2022 is now where Wall Street looks for signals.