One of the highest-grossing iOS games of the year in Russia turned out to be "Heroes of Might and Magic III"

Apple told which applications were the most downloaded and cashed in Russia at the end of the outgoing year.

Last night, on December 9, the App Store, as we have already written, presented its top of the best games of the outgoing year. Together with him, the editors of the Apple digital store shared a selection of the most popular content based on the results of the paid, free and cash charts for the year.

The top paid apps for the year are dominated by games. The cash register for a number of products here is made by projects that are very popular with children. We are talking, of course, about Minecraft, Toca Kitchen 2 and two FNAF-ah – the second and fifth parts. In part, Goat Simulator can also be counted here. Plus, on the popularity of Minecraft, The Survival Games 2: Mini Game got into the top.

Also, those users who are prone to nostalgia give money in advance perfectly. Otherwise, in the paid top, we would not have found either “Heroes of Might and Magic III”, or Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, or “Siberia”, which was reissued in the Russian market by Buka at the beginning of the year.

Out of curiosity: these are good indicators of Radiation Island survival, a port from the Earn to Die 2 web and Construction Simulator 2014, a peaceful game about big cars.

There are much fewer games in the free top. Social services and various utilities dominate the downloads here. The only game in the Top 5 by downloads is a project aimed specifically at children – “My Talking Angela”. Also in the top you can find World of Tanks Blitz, Angry Birds 2, Need for Speed No Limits, Crossy Road, SimCity BuildIt, “Marvel: Battle of Champions”, Agar.io and FIFA 15.

The conclusion from this selection is quite obvious: according to downloads, only those titles that have a very large brand behind them take off seriously and for a long time. As for Crossy Road, it is just an example of an exceptional (rare) viral success, which, by the way, was actively supported by both Apple and Unity. If we talk about Agar.io , then the project came out on mobile platforms already being a major phenomenon on the web.

The Russian box office top is the territory of mainly hardcore games. It’s funny that of the first six most expensive mobile products on the Russian market over the past year, three have a tank painted on the icon.

But there was a place in the top for casual games – Hay Day and “Candy”, as well as two whole slots – “Slotomania Casino” and GameTwist Slots.

Plus, there were no surprises at all. The fact is that DomiNations and “Heroes of Might and Magic III” entered the top. Minecraft, which overtook the “Heroes” in the paid top, did not enter the box office at all. Apparently, the “Heroes” somehow collected more money. This is, on the whole, surprising, considering that the reissue is only available on iPad.

Conclusions on the cash top seem superfluous. As we have already mentioned, hardcore games are made here. There are no children’s apps here, nor those that are strictly aimed at a female audience. Casual projects, in turn, are very few.

The only thing that I would like to note in general is the unclear situation with the inclusion of a number of projects in the tops. The same “Heroes”, for example, flew out of the box office twenty back in March. However, they were in the Top 100 all the time.

We don’t have any explanation, so we attribute it to the lack of information we have about how Apple’s ratings are actually formed.