Tiny Tower scales to ‘1m daily players’

More than one million people play smartphone sensation Tiny Tower each day, the game’s developer has said.

The iOS and Android title, which tasks players to vertically construct business complexes into skyscrapers, is one of the most prominent free-to-play games on mobile devices.

Users play for free but can purchase in-game currency to expedite the construction of buildings.

Ian Marsh, who works at the game’s Californian developer Nimblebit, claimed on Twitter that Tiny Tower hosts more than 10 million play sessions each day.

It is general consensus that a healthy free-to-play game encourages about 4 per cent of its total audience to pay for virtual items. There are many accounts of such people paying significant sums of money for such items.

Chris Benjaminsen, the developer of Flash game Everybody Edits, last year said he was selling 16×16 pixel images at $50 apiece. At one stage he was making $10,000 per month from this.

In what has become a matter of controversy, Capcom sells some virtual items on Surf Village at more than $60. The game is targeted at children and has resulted in many news articles of parents’ shock at substantial charges at the hands of their children’s spending habits.