How to make money in the New Year's Eve week?

Inside Mobile Apps bloggers tell how big companies manage to stay in the top in the last weeks of the year.

Christmas weeks are the most profitable for the year in terms of mobile app sales. Analysts from Flurry claim that, on average, developers receive 10% of annual revenue during this period. Only on Christmas Day, the average number of downloads, compared with the figures on a weekday, jumps 10 times.

However, developers still have to prepare for this. Moreover, they need to do it before December 22, when Apple traditionally closes iTunes Connect for a week.

The insider blog Inside Mobile Apps decided to figure out how big companies are preparing for this period before summing up the official results of the last Catholic Christmas.

So, what are they doing? 

Firstly, they reduce prices. The monsters of the market lower the price tags on their blockbusters to 99 cents. After that, small projects very often fly out of the tops, and the monopolies of publishers like EA are temporarily established in the top.

Another win-win move that some developers are making is the release of “winter editions” or themed additions dedicated to Christmas or New Year. For example, Beeline Interactive studio in Smurf’s Village (15th place in the American top grossing) added snow and decorative content to the game – including snowmen and Christmas trees.

Another effective way is to lower prices for in-game currency. For example, when Funzio reduced the cost of game currency in Crime City and Modern War by 20%, these games immediately rose in the top: one to the twentieth place, the other to the seventh. However, resorting to this move, developers risk losing profits in the future, briefly raising the level of sales to a high level.

Actually, according to Inside Mobile Apps, these three moves are the priority ones.