Apple is trying to demonstrate the power of new iPhones and premium iPads by porting AAA games, but almost no one buys them. This is evidenced by a report by Mobilegamer.biz.
Over the past year, iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, and premium iPads have seen the release of several major games, including Resident Evil 4, Resident Evil Village, Death Stranding, and Assassin's Creed Mirage. But despite their popularity and success on full-fledged gaming platforms, they failed on mobile devices.
Based on data from Appfigures, only 3 thousand people paid $49.99 to buy the full version of Assassin's Creed Mirage on iPhone after the game was released on smartphones on June 6. The game has been downloaded about 123 thousand times (it is available for free), and earned $138 thousand in total.
At the same time, Assassin's Creed Rebellion, a game that Ubisoft developed and released on smartphones in November 2018, was downloaded 1.9 million times during the same period, while Assassin's Creed Mirage was downloaded only 123 thousand times. In addition, the game earned $981 thousand during the same period, 612% more than Mirage.
Other major game ports also failed. According to rough estimates, Resident Evil 4 was downloaded about 357 thousand times and the game earned $208 thousand, Resident Evil Village - 370 thousand downloads and $97 thousand in revenue. Death Stranding, which cannot be downloaded for free, earned $212 thousand, but was installed only about 10 thousand times.
Data from Appmagic is a bit more optimistic. According to the company's estimates, Assassin's Creed Mirage was downloaded 279 thousand times, and the game generated $221 thousand in revenue. Other games also have better figures on iPhone and iPad in Appmagic's analytics, but even such optimistic figures are far from being a success.
Representatives of Appmagic and Appfigures commented on similar statistics. Their key words were that if users have the resources to buy a premium smartphone like iPhone 15 Pro and $50 to buy a full game, they most likely already have other platforms for comfortable gaming.