Founded in 2001, Glu toiled away for years in mobile gaming until it scores a huge success with the launch of Kim Kardashian: Hollywood in 2014. That game generated more than $146 million to date. The revenue came with very low user acquisition costs which are usually the scourge of mobile game developers who have to advertise heavily to get noticed among 1.5 million games in a $30 billion market. It worked because Kardashian sends fans back to the game every time she shares something on social media about it.
That prompted Niccolo De Masi to sign up other celebrities who, collectively, have more than a billion followers on social media. Glu launched its Katy Perry Pop game in mid-December, but that game didnt do well. In an interview with GamesBeat, De Masi acknowledged the mistakes that the company made in the Katy Perry game. But he said the company regrouped and moved on to the next title. And this one is hot. At the moment, the game is at No. 9 on the top-grossing games list in the U.S. iOS app store, and it is No. 3 in downloads.
In its first five days, Kendall & Kylie was downloaded more than 1.3 million times in the U.S. on iOS. During the same period at launch, Kim Kardashian: Hollywood only had 612,000 downloads, according to Glu. In the first five days, Kendall & Kylie made more than $680,000 through in-app purchases, while the Kardashian game made $222,000 in the same time frame. It took Kendall & Kylie two days to reach No. 1 in downloads for free iPhone apps in the U.S., while it took Kim Kardashian: Hollywood 24 days to do that. Reviews are also 92 percent positive for the Kendall & Kylie game, compared to 94 percent for Kim Kardashian: Hollywood and 55 percent for Katy Perry Pop.
