So how were these figures accomplished? Speaking to, CEO and founder Veli-Pekka Piirainen (pictured below) attributes it to a comprehensive strategy, sheer determination and a lot of hard work.įirst of all, the studio strives to make Critical Ops one of the highest quality multiplayer shooters available for mobile, achieved in part thanks to early testing two years ago. Again, the company stresses, all without paying for user acquisition services. While the studio hasn't managed to retain all of these players - as so few mobile developers manage to do - it has nonetheless garnered a sizeable and loyal audience of over 800,000 daily players and more than 6.6m monthly active users. įinland-based developer Critical Force is best known for its mobile FPS Critical Ops, a title with esports ambitions and a respectable 21m downloads. Yet one studio has managed to achieve success without such an investment.
There's an entire industry around user acquisition on mobile, with countless companies charging developers for their expertise and promising significant increases in their audience if such services are employed. Anyone can release a game for iOS or Android, but convincing people to play it? That's the real challenge. The barrier to entry on mobile is practically non-existent at this stage. To receive these special emails, sign up here. This article was first printed in the Mobile Newsletter.