Starting this topic to have an open (and transparent) discussion about games that have reached 1 million downloads. I've posted something similar in the past, but thought this is a good way to encourage and motivate the Construct community to keep at it and to never give up. Ask me any questions. Other developers/designers, feel free to chime in! :)
Q: How much did you make per month with 1 million downloads?
A: I was making about $2k per month on just banner ads alone. This decreased over time and have recently picked back up due to feature updates and using video rewards as well as interstitial ads.
Q: How much revenue to date?
A: Currently with 1.5+ million downloads, I have made over $70k in ad revenue.
Q: How did you accomplish that many downloads?
A: Honestly, it had to do a lot with luck. I didn't do any marketing except post the link to the game in several indie game forums and looked to the community here for support. A fellow developer I knew said that for indie developers it may take launching 10 games for one to be semi-successful. I just happen get lucky and hit that on my second game.
Q: For people who are starting out, any beginner tips?
A: Don't try to create games that take a lot of time to build. I recommend starting out creating simple casual mobile games. You can get an idea of this by looking at the games created by Ketchapp or Voodoo. If art is not your strong suit, you can create simple graphics with geometric shapes like Thomas Is Not Alone or Snake VS Block. Try creating a game within 1 or 2 months. Don't spend a year or two creating your first game.
Q: What's the hardest part about developing/designing games?
A: At the start, you're going to have a lot of passion and energy, but midway through, it's going to feel like a chore and another interesting game idea (distraction) will pop up. During this time, it's important to push through and finish the game. Even if the game "fails", that's okay. You'll learn a lot by fully launching a game. The biggest mistake you can make is not launching.
Q: What's important to learn early on?
A: Learn how to build for multiple screen sizes and preview your game in different screen ratios. Learn how to use functions to streamline the code so you don't fall into the habit of copy and pasting multiple lines of code only to change a few lines for different objects. Think about optimizing your art by not creating bloated or large assets. For objects of the same variety and have similar behaviors, plan ahead and create families and apply behaviors and instance variables to those instead. Get in the habit of grouping various lines of code to stay organized (e.g. groups like Player Movement, Enemy Attack, Player Death, etc...).
Hoping this is helpful. Feel free to ask away and check out my games on my website at: https://lumicreative.com