Are you into mobile gaming? I know I do. If you share my passion for gaming like I do, I’m sure you have tried Hay Day – yes, THAT ultra-popular farming game that sits on AppStore’s top grossing list for quite a long time.
Throughout the lifetime, Hay Day has been rated 4.5 of 5 stars, on average. Such high rating from more than 300,000 raters is a no joke.
I’m not going to review the game in this post (Biz Epic is a biz site, remember?) But I feel that I need to give Hay Day a credit, because, as a business, it is a great example of what an app business can offer you.
Hay Day’s developer, Supercell, also shows you how an app should position itself, and how it continues to transform into other niches – and while doing so, enjoy more than $180,000 of gross revenue per day. Yes, every single day – with over 2 millions of players playing every day (source.)
Firstly, check out these two Hay Day official videos that have attracted nearly 10 millions of views on YouTube in just 5 days…
New Hay Day app update trailer:
Hay Day TV commercial:
An engaging trailer and a fun commercial. Both definitely help Hay Day to gain more exposure, app download, and eventually, sales.
Lessons learned:
1. Obviously, you need to have a great product. But the game doesn’t sell itself; you need a strategy. In Hay Day’s case, the free download strategy works like charms. Hay Day is addictive, and being a free app means that the barrier to download the game is very low. Sales is generated via in-game purchase.
2. To sustain your business growth, you need to transform your products/services. Supercell expands the game into more than just a farm building and management game; it’s now expanding into town building and management game with the latest update.
3. There is no better way to promote an app than cross-promoting with other apps and app developers.
4. On other apps, users can get more perks – e.g. free coins/diamonds/top-ups – for viewing ads, and Hay Day often pops up on those apps as an advertiser/partner.
5. Just like in any other epic games out there, great design helps. A LOT. Beautiful banner/video ads and game graphics matter.
So, what do you think of Hay Day – as a game or a business? Please share with us!
