The ever so popular and premium puzzle game, Monument Valley has earned USTwo Games over $14 million since it’s release two years ago. This is despite the fact that over 80 percent of it’s players downloaded the game for free. This is the second time developers released information on Monument Valley’s commercial performance which is a level of transparency hardly found in the mobile game industry. According to a blog post from the company last week, in January of 2015, they made the decision to be transparent with how Monument Valley has performed since its release and 3rd April 2016 marked the two year anniversary of Monument Valley’s release and it has given them the time to analyze the game’s performance.
Monument Valley earned $14.3 million in two years, with its most lucrative day being March 31, 2015 which came 2 days after popular TV series House of Cards character Frank Underwood played the game. What’s even more interesting about the announcement other than the huge amount of money made from a mobile game is the fact that Monument Valley has been downloaded over 26 million times of which over 21 million came from free downloads from various app store promotions and Chinese players contributed 11 million overall. The game also has been downloaded on over 50 millions devices which includes downloads from Chinese stores, multiple devices from one sale and unauthorized downloads. A key factor in Monument Valley’s impressive earnings is Forgotten Shores, a premium priced expansion pack in the game. The majority of players who paid for the game come from iOS, and the peak revenue they enjoyed was in March 2015 where it pulled $70,000. According to USTwo, Forgotten Shores has been downloaded 2.37 million times. Other interesting stats about the game is that it has raised over $750,000 for charity since it’s launch and has won 20 awards in various categories such as the Grand Prix award and been nominated for 43 other awards.
There are plenty of mobile games out there. Some are able to create a hype for a few weeks while some aren’t even noticed, then there are those that last a long time even once the updates stop coming in and Monument Valley is one of those games where it is based in a stunningly beautiful world with the aim to guide a silent princess. For those interested, Monument Valley can be downloaded from the Google Play Store for $3.99.