Plague Inc. Game Downloads Soar amid Coronavirus

The coronavirus outbreak has been occupying the news for several weeks now, and it looks like it has even affected both the App and Play Store worldwide! In a couple of days, the game Plague Inc. managed to reach to top charts in major countries and multiplied its downloads by a x12 factor. Using our App Intelligence add on, we had a closer look at the game’s download and category rank progression in top countries. Read below to find out which countries seem to be most amused by the coronavirus infection…

Plague Inc. increased downloads x10 on Google vs. x2 on Apple

When we compared Plague Inc.’s downloads’ progression over the last 30 days, the difference between the App and Play Store is huge. On the Play Store, the game went from a total of 8k downloads to 114k in 30 days. On the App Store, the game barely doubled its downloads (from 2.3k to 4.5k in 30 days).(*)

(*)The analysis was done on the following countries: Brazil, France, Germany, India, Japan, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Plague Inc.’s total download progression on the Play Store and on the App Store (analyzed countries are Brazil, France, Germany, India, Japan, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and the United States).

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This huge difference in download progression can be explained by the fact that the game was launched as a free game on the Play Store while it has a cost of $0.99 on the App Store. This shows how launching an app as paid instead of free can have a drastic impact on conversion. Today, Plague Inc. gets 89% of its downloads from the Play Store vs. only 11% from the App Store.

Spread of downloads of Plague Inc. between the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store.

That said, if we look at the revenue estimates for this app (US only), we can see that they are twice as high on Apple ($507k over the last 30 days) than on Google ($226k over the last 30 days).

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Top growth download countries are Japan and South Korea

We then had a look at the download progression of the Plague Inc. game within the studied countries. On the App Store, top download countries are the United States (1.4k downloads on Feb 5th) and Japan (1k downloads on Feb 5th). On the Play Store, the top download countries are Brazil (26k on Feb 5th), the US (24k on Feb 5th) and South Korea (23k on Feb 5th).

Comparing the daily downloads of Plague Inc. on the App and Play Store across different major markets 30 days ago and today (Feb 5th).

If we look at the numbers in terms of growth percentage, South Korea has the highest download growth on the Play Store (x10 factor in 30 days) and Japan beats all countries on the App Store (x7 factor in 30 days).

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Top ranking countries are South Korea, Germany, France

The numbers cited above should be put into perspective considering the size of the population in each country. For example, the fact that Brazil is Plague Inc.’s best-performing country on the Play Store and the US on the App Store isn’t so surprising since these are huge markets compared to some of the other countries.

Using Market Intelligence, we compared the size of each analyzed country in terms of download potential.

Comparing the download market share of several major markets of Plague Inc.’s main category on the Google Play Store (Game – Free) and the Apple App Store (Games – Paid).

Considering the size of the Indian market on Google and the download history of Plague Inc. in that country, we can conclude that the game isn’t as popular in India as it is in the other markets.

Another way to remove the bias of the country’s population size is to look at the category rank history of the game in each of these countries. On the App Store, Plague Inc. managed to rank n°1 among the “All” and “Games” paid category (overtaking Minecraft) and has maintained this position over the past weeks.

Plague Inc.’s category rank history over the last 30 days in the categories “All” and “Games” of the Apple App Store (Paid) across several countries.

On the Play Store, there is a more pronounced difference. The game has reached a high position in both the All and Game category (free) in South Korea, France and Germany. When it comes to category rank instead of downloads, Brazil and India lag behind.

Plague Inc.’s category rank history over the last 30 days in the categories “All” and “Game” of the Google Play Store (Free) across several countries.

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To sum up, our App Intelligence Add On has helped us identify the following insights:

• The game Plague Inc. has a huge boost in downloads over the last 30 days
• This boost took place in all major countries and on both Stores
• The boost was more pronounced on the Play Store where the app was launched as a free app (vs. Paid app on the App Store)
• Most impressive growth in downloads was in South Korea (Play Store) and Japan (App Store)
• The game hasn’t become as popular in India, where download rate remained low
• The game still ranks n°1 on the App Store (Games – Paid) and in Top 10 results on the Play Store (Game – Free) in France, Germany, and South Korea

If you’re looking for similar insights on your app and your competitors, don’t miss our App Intelligence Add-on. It’s a great tool to benchmark your app’s performance against the competition in several countries at once!