We’ve already posted about the odd popularity of Flappy Golf (Free), but given the stars aligned in that it’s a bit of a slow news on a Friday, Ryan from Noodlecake sent me an email, and I love patting myself on the back, it all seemed worth mentioning again. Anyway, a few weeks back on an episode of our podcast, I predicted that despite all the effort that went in to the (absolutely fabulous) Super Stickman Golf ($2.99), Super Stickman Golf 2 ($0.99), and the other great Noodlecake games, the one that was going to put them on the map was going to be Flappy Golf. That’s exactly what is happening.
Anyway, in his email Noodlecake Ryan (or Ryan Noodlecake, I’m not sure which is his first or last name) mentions that things have gotten really interesting since Flappy Golf broke in to the top 50 games. Previously we mentioned that the game was most popular during school hours, with a massive drop off over the weekend. Well, as it gets higher in the charts, those dips are disappearing in to one huge constant download rate.
The fascinating thing about this is it shows with some pretty decent granularity just how the viral nature of the App Store works. As Flappy Golf obviously started with school kids, then once it reached a certain popularity threshold, weekend gamers started picking it up. I think it’s safe to assume that weekend gamers are an entirely different demographic, but it’s neat thinking that one feeds in to the other to make a viral hit.
Ryan mentions that their retention rate is “crazy high" in the game, and Noodlecake plans on dishing out more updates (or “spew out content," in their words) up the very near future- Potentially as soon as in a week and a half. Look for new courses, custom balls, and all sorts of stuff like that.
Anyway, I love Flappy Golf, but not as much as I love being right. On a more serious note, you should totally check out the game if you haven’t yet. It’s an incredibly fun spin on the Flappy formula, and one that actually evolves the whole thing to something entirely new that you just happen to flap in.
