I've been analyzing the top charts for Russia and the surrounding countries a lot this week, for obvious reasons, and although it's VPNs that command much of the downloads, there was a game that I kept coming across.
Talking Ben the Dog is currently #7 on the App Store in Russia and #2 on Google Play. That's right, among apps to circumvent censorship, stay connected, and make payments is a game about a dog that's a retired chemistry professor.
The game is in the top 10 in 6 countries, including Russia and Belarus, and top 25 in 12 more, which include the US, UK, and Ukraine.
So, why is it there? It could be that it's a go-to game in times of uncertainty. Looking at downloads, however, we can see a big wave rising pre-invasion, which more likely means an ad campaign that's still running.
We estimate that since the beginning of February, when downloads started growing, Talking Ben the Dog saw 10M new downloads. That's right, Million. It peaked at 471K on 2/19, which marks an increase of 1,470% from a few weeks before.
Side note, looking at revenue, this isn't the kind of ROI positive campaign advertisers look for.
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