Software
Chrome Web Store Sales Almost Non Existant
Google’s Chrome web store launched with a lot of fanfare on Tuesday at the Google Chrome event in San Francisco. I thought a ton of people would head over to chrome.Google.com/webstore to load up on free web apps and drop a dollar or two on a couple of paid apps, but that hasn’t been the case. A quick look at the Chrome web store’s list of top paid apps is saddening.
While many free apps already have thousands of installs, most popular paid apps are in the one one,two or (very low) three digit range.
Toddler Jukebox is at the top of the paid apps page and has only 52 users. Lockmaster only had 16, Real Solitaire has 113, and Contrasaurus has 60 users. Onslaught Arena has almost 1,300 users, which means its developer has earned about $7,000 in the first week. Wordico has 375 users that were willing to pay $4.99 a pop.
The only app that I’ve bought for my Cr-48 is Dreams 2, which was demoed at the Google Chrome event. It’s a pretty simple game, with a grand total of 15 illustrations. The game is to spot the tiny differences between two images. It offers a few minutes of entertainment, but it’s not worth $1.99 in my opinion since there are similar free games out there and more immersive games for that price on mobile devices. The masses apparently agree with me as the game’s only garnered about $100 on the Chrome web store.
keep in mind that Google Chrome Web store sales are not limited to the lucky few of us that received CR–48 from Google. Any of the 120 million Google Chrome users can install these apps. Sure, the Chrome web store is only been out for a few days, but these kind of numbers can’t be encouraging for developers.
atomic1fire
12/11/2010 at 1:24 am
Part of it is the fact that app-store sales are not going to be in the millions right away,
The app-store just opened, and there are not too many paid apps that will really drive purchases.
Plus, chrome OS is still in beta.
Xavier Lanier
12/11/2010 at 3:36 am
You don’t need Chrome OS to buy web apps- just need Chrome. I checked Dreams 2 yesterday and there were 36 users…so about a dozen a day. With the reach/amount of buzz around the Web store you’d think more people would buy an app or two.
I think the problem is that a lot of these ‘apps’ aren’t worth 99 cents….
savagemike
12/11/2010 at 7:57 pm
I have to agree.
I doubt google expected massive immediate uptake.
I think they expected to get it up and running/testing under moderate pressure so it could be assessed and made more ready perhaps to handle a larger influx once Chrome OS comes out.
richtaur
12/12/2010 at 1:15 am
In reponse to: “Onslaught Arena has almost 1,300 users, which means its developer has earned about $7,000 in the first week.”
I’m one of developers of Onslaught! Arena, and while we have been getting a ton of players, we’ve had very few purchases. Our conversation rate is low (< 1%) and our sales haven't been anywhere near approaching the numbers in this article.
Thanks for mentioning us!
Xavier Lanier
12/12/2010 at 6:44 pm
Sorry to hear about the numbers. I assumed they were accurate on the Chrome web store. Best of luck as Chrome OS is rolled out.
Dennis.gulich
12/27/2010 at 10:27 am
They probably count trails as an install.
I think one of the reasons the sales are so low is the fact that no one except a few people and developers know about chrome web apps.
Xavier Lanier
12/12/2010 at 6:44 pm
Sorry to hear about the numbers. I assumed they were accurate on the Chrome web store. Best of luck as Chrome OS is rolled out.