Resident Evil 7 flops on iPhone, recording under 2,000 downloads
Resident Evil 7 has flopped on iOS with under 2,000 downloads despite its free trial being downloaded more than 80,000 times since its release. The game’s conversion rate is low since only three percent of the initial downloads proceed to check out the game and pay $16.
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Resident Evil 7 first hit the market in 2017 and is the latest major console to launch on iOS. The AAA iPhone port launched on July 2 in line with Apple’s initiative to allow AAA ports to run organically on the iOS operating system.
Apple is introducing these titles to iOS to showcase the iPhone’s technical capabilities. Resident Evil 7 has reportedly generated only $28,000 without incorporating Apple’s 30% deduction fee.
Big-name console games flop on iOS
Resident Evil 7 joins other major AAA ports that flopped after their iOS launch. These games include Assassin’s Creed: Mirage, RE 4, Resident Evil Village, and Death Stranding.
Assassin’s Creed Mirage achieved below 3,000 downloads that completed the $45 purchase fee after its iOS debut on June 6th, despite the game registering over 120,000 downloads on the free version. The gross revenue collected from the game averaged around $138,000, according to data analytics platform Appfigures.
RE 4 only gained approximately 7,000 sales despite being downloaded 357,000 times. On the other hand, Resident Evil Village converted less than 6,000 sales after its release last year. Resident Evil 7 got 83,000 downloads on its free version, out of which only less than 2000 have purchased the game so far.
Resident Evil 7 poses storage and performance limitations
Like most gaming consoles that Apple has facilitated on iOS, Resident Evil 7 is only available on Apple’s latest iOS devices, the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max, plus high-end iPads with an M1 chip and above.
These high-end requirements and high-performance characteristics potentially contribute to the low conversion rates the games have witnessed. However, this limitation does not explain the low conversion rates.
Resident Evil is 25 GB, which also presents a storage issue for iOS users. The product page also recommends users have at least twice the size of the file in free available storage when installing the game.
Additionally, the large file also causes issues during the installation process. Such a large file would typically download for 6 hours at a standard internet speed of 10 Mbps.
While some players liked Resident Evil’s overall gameplay, others emphasized that the game should not be available on mobile phones. One particular user mentioned that mobile phones are not ideal for traditional games such as Resident Evil 7.
“Traditional games just aren’t the market for mobile they should know this by now…”
Another user posted on X that most iPhone users would not make their devices the primary tools for playing the game. The user also added that the audience for such games doesn’t prefer using mobile phones to play them.
