Last year, Threes! made quite a bit of money at $3 per download. Last month, the developer released a free version of the app and have no regrets for doing so. The free version still generates money via in-game ads. Many games are being forced to switch over to free-to-play due to the prevalence of this model in the market.
The game’s creator, Asher Vollmer, took to Twitter to announce that the free version already doubled the game’s daily revenue. The team explained that they didn’t want to ruin the game’s aesthetic with banner ads, so they decided to have ads in between games. Vollmer even provided some graphs for curious fans.
Threes! paid revenue
Threes! Free-to-play revenue
Vollmer commented on the free version’s performance, saying, “It was not a very glamorous game release, but it was a good business decision. Excited to make bigger games now!” Looking at the graphs above, there’s a noticeable drop off after the first day or two, but studies have shown this is to be expected. Threes! has successfully adopted the free-to-play model without using bothersome microtransactions or banner ads. Hopefully this trend continues with the visible success Vollmer has provided.