One of the greatest things about the App Store is that it can make you a huge success overnight.
Sure, it almost never happens, but that doesn’t mean it’s not possible. What’s more, your app or game can become super popular, while offering little to no value whatsoever.
Again, it’s pretty hard for that to happen, but it is possible. We’ve seen it time and time again with apps and games that are so silly that you wouldn’t believe how much money they’ve made. Remember, just because an idea is dumb doesn’t mean it’s not profitable.
From games about useless birds to apps that make fart noises, here are some silly apps that made more money than you may have thought.
iFart
Back in the day, the Apple App Store was like the wild west. You could find anything in it, and it all felt so new and amazing.
Some apps became an instant success because of how helpful and novel they were. Others were so silly; they just worked.
Enter iFart, an app that, well, you probably can guess what it’s about just by reading the name. This app makes fart noises, and that’s it. End of story.
Of course, now it has features like “security fart” and “Fave Farts” that lets you create a playlist of your favorite farts. You know, we’re talking about the essential apps you can’t live without.
How much money can such a silly idea make? You’d be surprised. It was reported that iFart made over $50,000 per week back in the day.
Maybe now it’s not that popular, but over time it’s estimated the app made at least a couple of million dollars. You can still try the app for yourself if you want to know what the fuss is about.
iBeer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiCic214Oi4
Don’t you miss the good old days when everyone used to add an “i” to copy Apple’s success? Well, iBeer was one of the apps that succeeded.
This app would turn your iPhone’s home screen into beer. Thanks to the iPhone’s gyroscope, you could tilt your iPhone near your mouth, and it would look like you were drinking beer out of your iPhone.
That was its most popular feature, but it also had other features that could help you use your iPhone for magic tricks or to trick your friends and family into thinking you just cracked your screen.
Was it silly? Sure. Was it profitable? Like you wouldn’t believe. At its peak, the iBeer app had over 90 million users. And not only that but the developer made over $20,000 per day.
Yo
This app is pretty silly, but it still managed to make a lot of money. Back when voice messages weren’t as popular as they are today, Yo offered a different way to communicate with your friends and family.
You could say “Yo” and send it to your friends and family. Then, someone could reply to you, but they could only do it with one word: “Yo.”
To be fair, the app was released on April fools day in 2014, so it wasn’t meant to be taken that seriously. However, that didn’t stop the app’s popularity, and it managed to make an estimated revenue of over $2.5 million.
FatBooth
Believe it or not, filters aren’t a new invention. Sure, you can now turn yourself into a different person or animal and even see what you’d look like if you were 30 years older. But it was apps like FatBooth that paved the way for all those filters. And it made a ton of money while doing so.
FatBooth does what you think it does. It’ll make you look like you just gained a lot of weight, which is perfect if you want to know what you’d look like if you let yourself go.
As silly as this app gets, it managed to make an estimated revenue of over $24 million. Although, with the popularity of filters these days, we can’t say we’re that surprised.
Flappy Bird
Before everyone was talking about Worddle, there was Flappy Bird. This silly game had one goal: To go as far as you could with a bird that doesn’t know how to fly properly.
You needed to tap to go up or down and avoid green pipes that looked like they came from Super Mario.
It was simple, silly, and extremely addictive. The game’s success didn’t happen overnight, but there was a time when everyone wanted to play it.
The game became so popular that Doug Nguyen, its creator, had to remove it from the App Store. Why? Unfortunately, Nguyen didn’t like the popularity that came with the game. It wasn’t just about the pressure of being in the public eye, though. Nguyen also got threats because of his silly game.
The good news is that Nguyen got a lot of money for this quirky little project. Flappy bird made an estimated revenue of over $320 million. There’s no doubt that 2013 was a weird time.
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