App Store Gaming Apps Analysis

Introduction & Challenge Objective:

We download apps from the App Store every day and enjoy the fun of App Store games! For this challenge, I analysed a dataset to help game developers understand the market, provide a better monetization strategy, and improve user engagement. This dashboard aims to empower game developers and business stakeholders by offering valuable data-driven insights on key performance indicators (KPIs) such as the number of apps, developers, user ratings, and revenue. The goal is to help users understand market trends, identify opportunities, and make informed decisions to optimize their strategies in the gaming industry.

About the Dataset:

The dataset included 16286 records comprising of details on Apps, Developers, Ratings, Price, Age ratings etc.

Tools Used:

Power BI

Data Preparation & Modelling:

The data was pretty much clean but it required little changes. The dim Date table was added. One challenging part was creating a separate date table which I used for highlighting the period.

Data Analysis and Visualization:

Dashboard Designing - I planned to create a 2 page dashboard and also wanted to show the app details (However I went for a bookmark one here, as the challenge restriction for this as 2 page). I wanted to go with a dark background and a little classy, hence extra effort has gone into creating the same.

Insights & Analysis:

Decline in Gaming Apps:

The total number of gaming apps on the App Store is 16K, but there's a significant Year-over-Year (YoY) decline of 37.91%. This suggests a saturation or shift in the gaming market over the years.

Developer Participation:

The number of developers contributing to the App Store is 8K, with a YoY decline of 30.49%. This might indicate a consolidation in the industry or fewer new developers entering the market.

Revenue Trends:

Total revenue from gaming apps stands at $5.41M, but with a drastic YoY decline of 91.56%. This could indicate a drop in monetization opportunities, possibly due to increased competition or changes in user spending habits.

User Ratings:

Despite having 24M user ratings, there's a 67.35% YoY decrease in new ratings. This could reflect decreased user engagement or fewer new apps drawing large user interactions.

Average App Price:

The average price per selected genre is $0.80, which could be indicative of the competitive pricing strategies employed by developers.

App Distribution:

The majority of apps are paid, with 84.26% of apps falling under the paid category, suggesting that the freemium model might be less dominant in this dataset.

Top Games and Developers:

Clash of Clans is the top game with 3.03M user ratings, far surpassing other games.

Electronic Arts leads as the top developer with a consistent high rating of 4.5 across its games, followed closely by other major developers like Popcap and Supercell.

Popular Genres:

Strategy is the most popular genre with 16.1K apps, indicating a strong user preference for this category. Other popular genres include Entertainment and Puzzle.

Demographic Insights:

A significant number of apps (11.1K) target users with an age rating of 4+, showing that games targeting younger audiences dominate the market.

Genre by Age Category:

The 4+ age category dominates across multiple genres, with the highest variety of genres available for this age group.

Average Price Forecast:

The Average price saw a dip during the year 2011 - 2015 and a rise in 2016 and again a dip, it is a lot of variation.

Popular Languages:

The Dominating Language is EN with 16032 apps, followed by ZH, DE, FR and ES (with almost similar distribution)

High Income Developers:

Ninja Kiwi tops the list followed by Donut Games.

Conclusion:

This project was a fantastic learning experience! One of the key takeaways was focusing on highlighting the crucial insights, and avoiding the temptation to present a lot of scenarios that deviate from the primary objective, over-complicate, and overwhelm the user. This is an important one to master and I'm just getting started. Also, I always thought a GIF would be too distracting, but it can be created with a subtle effect and it was fun creating it.