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Phantom Words: a word game that went free to boost downloads

A word game for players that was made free to drive downloads for the launch.

Problem it solvesPaid games struggle to get downloads without a launch push.

Himanshu (@fleonus) launched Phantom Words and made past games, including Zyl, free during the launch week. He reports that this caused a big download spike for Zyl and that Zyl beat the downloads he got from the App Store feature.

How they grewMade past games free; AppRaven and giveaway sites drove downloads

Visit ↗ x.com

Himanshu

@fleonus

When launching Phantom Words, I made all past games, including Zyl, free during the launch week (they still are free ICYMI). This resulted in a spike in downloads so high (2000+) for Zyl, it even beat the downloads I got from the App Store feature (1000+). Felt as if Zyl was the game launching this week, not Phantom Words. Some interesting insights from the data, hope someone can find this helpful: - @AppRaven is not just an amazing source of downloads, but a great community too. It is primarily meant for game developers, but it has apps on there too. It only works if you actually participate in the community there though. - If you make your paid app/game free, and it has no in-app purchases, it is eligible to be made available in China. Usually publishing to the App Store in China is impossible, especially as an indie game developer. - Making a paid app/game discounted, or free makes it appear on several websites that feature giveaways or discounted apps/games. Use it sparingly though: if you discount your app every week, that would likely only work once and get you blacklisted on these websites. Attached: some screenshots of download numbers and app/web referrer sources for Zyl this week. Funny that I got some downloads through Camera and Notes apps 😂

Downloads
2K+
Zyl
Downloads
1K+
App Store feature
Sep 30, 2026Read on x.com ↗

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