I came across this story yesterday and I thought I’d bring it to you and no it’s not about any of the “Keeping up with the Kardashians” episode. It’s rather Kim Kardashian West’s mobile gaming business Kim Kardashian: Hollywood and how the game has come since June 2014 when it was announced. The long and short of the game is that the game is a role playing game that became famous for allowing users to become famous by making appearances at clubs, going on dates and acting among other activities. The guys at Game Analytics think the game is a simple one, with very straightforward free-to-play mechanics that have been used in games since FrontierVille in 2011 or earlier.
What it lacks in complexity, however, it more than makes up for in style, substance, and spot-on representation of the Kim Kardashian brand. The team at Glu delivered a high production value gem of a mobile experience that expanded free-to-play gaming to a whole new audience. Without the perfect mix of audience, license, and mechanics, it’s extremely unlikely this game becomes the massive success we see today (and Glu knows this – Kim Kardashian is a re-skin of Stardom: Hollywood, a successful game by most measures but not the breakout hit Kim Kardiashian has become).
The more you play the game by engaging in the one or more of the activities I mentioned earlier, you get ratings which eventually increase your celebrity ranking. Well its more than that of course but that’s a summary to make you understand the game more and just in case you were wondering how much fans the game has, you would need to read this article from Daily Mail where it was reported that a 30 year old woman played this game for 30 hours a week. now that’s like a job if you consider that the average person works 40 hours a week.
Just a month after launch, Glu Mobile, the studio behind free-to-play games Kim Kardashian: Hollywood beat Wall Street’s expectations in its second fiscal quarter.
Analysts had been expecting a loss of four cents per share and $34 million in non-GAAP revenue, while Glu turned in a two cent loss and $35 million in revenue. The Kardashian game has been a top-10 app on the iPhone charts in both downloads and revenue for more than a month, and has inspired some hilarious commentary online.
Perhaps the success of the game could not be expressed better than Forbes making this a cover story in their July 2016 edition. Forbes had released a list of top earning celebrities with Taylor Swift topping the chart with $170 million in earnings. Since its June 2014 launch Kim Kardashian: Hollywood has been downloaded 45 million times and generated $160 million in revenue. FORBES estimates that Kardashian has pocketed $45 million from it over that period. This year she earned $51 million to land at No. 42 on FORBES’ Celebrity 100 list; 40% of her yearly paycheck came from the game.
The game is available iOS, OS X, Android and Facebook
Paul Balo is the founder of TechBooky and a highly skilled wireless communications professional with a strong background in cloud computing, offering extensive experience in designing, implementing, and managing wireless communication systems.
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