Angry Birds On Android Projected To Generate $1 Million Per Month In Advertising
One of the most successful mobile games right now is Angry Birds, which has been downloaded more than 30 million times across different mobile platforms, with 12 million of those being paid downloads on iPhones, iPads, and iPod Touches.
Context & Ripple Effects
The projection caps a fast run: Rovio launched Angry Birds on Android to over 1 million downloads in its first day in mid-October, and by early December the franchise counts more than 30 million downloads across platforms — 12 million of them paid installs on iPhones, iPads and iPod Touches.
What the numbers expose is a split monetization strategy: Apple's storefront lets Rovio charge upfront, while on Android it gives the game away and banks on advertising instead, with the $1 million-per-month figure offered as the projected yield on that free install base.
First-order effects
- Rovio gains a revenue line on Android that requires no payment processing at all — ad income arrives regardless of whether Google Checkout conversion ever improves for its free users.
Second-order effects
- Other mobile developers watching the $1 million/month projection have a template for treating Android's weak paid-app market not as a loss but as an ad inventory play, pushing more studios toward free-with-ads releases there.
Third-order effects
- If ad-funded free games keep matching or beating paid download economics, the mobile industry splits into two monetization tracks — pay-upfront on iOS, ad-supported on Android — and ad networks become as strategic to game makers as app store placement.
The trend: Mobile gaming is bifurcating by platform: paid downloads on iOS versus free, ad-supported distribution on Android, with hit install bases turning ad inventory into seven-figure monthly businesses.