Visiting the iOS App Store this week was a joy for fans of indie games, those created by small-time developers who don’t have the millions to invest in advertising campaigns and marketing blitzes. During the week, Apple highlighted indie games in a “Celebrating Indie Games” section, including wonderful games from independent developers such as Monument Valley (one of my personal favorites), the hilariously gory Surgeon Simulator, and the beautiful puzzler Prune. It appears that the focus on indie game developers is set become a permanent fixture on the App Store.
Yesterday, the App Store Games Twitter account announced that the Celebrating Indie Games focus will continue, so we can expect to see more of these great games highlighted in the App Store in the future.
Love the games we’ve debuted? Starting today, we’ll have a permanent spot on the App Store just for indie games. https://t.co/M7fhi8kU4D pic.twitter.com/d9Nt98EGvw
— App Store Games (@AppStoreGames) March 17, 2017
Games are big business in the App Store, with an estimated 75 – 80 percent of all revenues coming from mobile gaming (great article by my old TUAW co-worker Randy Nelson, who is now Head of Mobile Insights for Sensor Tower). Mobile gaming is even expected to surpass PC gaming in 2017 with almost $37 billion in revenues.
It’s great to see Apple putting the spotlight on some of the smaller game developers, and the promotion this week is having a positive effect on many of the indie titles. This morning, indie games Surgeon Simulator was at #2 in the US Top Paid Apps, Botanicula at #4, and Prune at #6.
