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Bejeweled Blitz iOS is making five times the daily revenue since switching to a free-to-play business model last December, PopCap has announced.
Speaking during GDC 2012, PopCap business director Giordano Bruno Contestabile revealed that the game has had nine times as many downloads since going free.
Bejeweled Blitz on iOS has had nine times as many downloads since going free, and the average iOS user plays 52 games per day. Seeing as games of Blitz are one minute long, that’s almost an hour of time spent playing per day.
Contestabile says these statistics reflect the “always on, always with me” nature of mobile devices.
iOS gamers are also likely to play games on the toilet, too. “Toilet gaming’s a thing,” joked Contestabile, before adding that “20% of mobile gaming happens on the toilet.”
But the switch to freemium hasn’t been without problems. The initial release of the game was plagued with thousands of bad reviews, and Popcap had to work to release an updated version within three days to calm the swelling community.
Bejeweled Blitz is also a Facebook Connect game, and only approximately 20% of users have activated this feature – despite it unlocking the full suite of Bejeweled Blitz’s features.
“I still think that, for Bejeweled Blitz, Facebook Connect was the right choice” said Contestabile.
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