The foundations of a successful app

Developing smartphone apps is a tough business to break into. Seventy-five percent of apps earn the developer less than 500 dollars per month. Because app markets are saturated, very few apps are able to accumulate many downloads. In fact, only one in six smartphone apps exceed 500 total downloads.

Every once in a while, an app is able to break out and find success, gaining high numbers of downloads in a matter of days. For the most successful apps, user numbers lie in the millions and gameplay takes billions of hours from users. What is it that makes these apps, such as Blood Brothers, Minecraft, Dragonplay Poker, Words With Friends and Candy Crush Saga, so successful?

When it comes to these apps – ones that happen to top off the list of top grossing free Android apps – it’s all about playing within a community. Incorporating social features within apps adds significant value to gameplay. On top of this, playing live with real people ensures a diverse and ever-changing experience.

In this infographic, Startapp takes a look at a few of the most popular apps today in order to find out what they’re doing right when it comes racking up downloads and dollars.

© StartApp.com