New Apps Versus Old Apps

There are over 600,000 iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touchs apps that you can choose from in the App Store, and every day there is a new app being created and added.  A majority of the apps are games that you can play to pass the time at work, waiting for the bus, or when you want to ignore your mom for making you clean your room.  But, through all of these different games, there are always a few that stand out and are the top apps that people download and play with on their Apple products. So the big question is, what makes a game a top game to play?

People usually buy games after they tested them out for free or heard it from someone else, but what makes them get to the top?  Angry Birds was a top game when it first came out in late 2009, having over 5 million sales in the first month it was released.  This game lets the player fling different types of birds at towers set up on the opposite side of the screen, trying to fight off different green pigs. After the obsession with Angry Birds, came the Fruit Ninja craze. This game’s basic purpose was to slice up fruit, while simultaneously avoiding bombs. Fruit Ninja was first released in April 2010, and now has over 20 million sales.  The most recent top game is Temple Run.  This game lets you follow a character and have he or she jump, slide, and collect coins while running away from these monkey type creatures.  It was released in August 2011 and by December 2011; it was the number 1 game.  But how are these games getting to the top?  Senior Sam Wieder says, “They are addicting and you always want to get above your high score.  Plus, I love to beat my friends’ scores too.”  As these games get more addictive, they will continue to rise in the charts in the App Store.

Now, since Temple Run is the number one game, why isn’t Fruit Ninja and Angry Birds the number one game anymore?  Why don’t people continue to play those games just as much as the new ones?  Jackie Bernard, a senior, responds with “I don’t have the patience to play the old games when I can play the new ones.”  So that’s another reason why games continue to climb higher in the rankings, they are just so addictive that they take the place of other games.

What app will be the next top game to play?  Will any of these apps come back to the number one spot?  The point is to keep playing and follow the trends.