Free Kim Kardashian Hollywood app set to reach $200 million in revenue from in-app purchases
We can add yet another seemingly impossible way to keep up with the Kardashians as Kim Kardashian’s recent foray into video gaming appears to be a HUGE success with her free “Kim Kardashian: Hollywood” app set to bring in $200 million in revenue from in-app purchases!
The game, which was launched by Glu Mobile on June 25, has reached as high as #2 on the iTunes App store for free app downloads, and it is currently the only free app in the Top 10 (it is #3 at the time of this post) with a 5-star rating — and that’s with more than 76,000 reviews!!!
Although the game is free to play, you can speed up your ascension to fame and celebridom with in-app purchases that range from $3.99 for a “Rising Star Pack” to $99.99 for 175,000 virtual dollars. (Does this mean Bitcoin could soon be replaced by Kimkoin? Her hubby helped pave the way by putting the Kanye Kibosh on Coinye back in January.) It’s the enticing (and then addictive) in-app purchases that have Cowen & Co. analyst Douglas Creutz predicting $200 million in annual revenue.
Jezebel writer Tracey Egan Morrissey documented her Requiem for a Dreamesque venture into Kim Kardashian’s Hollywood, during which she spent close to $500 in real cash in pursuit of A-listery. Did she make it? “I’m an A-list celebrity with 50 million fans,” she reveals triumphantly, after conceding, “I know. I know! I’m the worst. I’m a sheep. I’m part of what’s wrong with modern American culture.”
Tracey’s review was pretty similar to the tens of thousands of other positive reviews on the iTunes store. “I’d like to say that “Kim Kardashian: Hollywood” is so f***ing fun. Sure, in a really terrible, anxiety-ridden, OCD-triggering kind of way, but fun nonetheless.”
App user letitbloom titled her less-than-perfect four-star review “I’m addicted, but spending too much” and wrote, “I originally got this game because I heard a lot of people talking about it, and it seemed really fun and I loved the concept, so I got it, but then, I found myself addicted.” From there her review has some of the most amazing quotes ever (in bold), which is making me think perhaps Kim’s game is closer to reality than I thought:
I had to play the game, and also I needed to keep buying stars to get energy so I could do well at my modeling shoots and appearances and all of that. What I hate is I run out of energy so quickly it’s crazy. I can’t get enough energy in order to ace a shoot unless I buy it, so I’ve found myself spending too much money on this. I wish there were easier ways to get energy, such as lying in bed and sleeping, or regaining it back with actions. Also some flaws are the fact that we ALWAYS have to be doing a shoot or something that takes up energy, because that’s all I do. I would like it if there’s more opportunities to just hangout and not do much. It also needs to be more realistic. I don’t like how we always have to ‘charm’ people to talk to them or that we can do nothing with our boyfriends either, just sit around with them and use energy. Can we actually talk to them or something? And also, can we travel with them? And we can’t do anything with our houses either. I want to have parties and sleep and get use out of the money I’m spending. Also, please make more clothing available with cash and not stars. And for eye makeup, it’s all so harsh, add some lighter options please! Despite the flaws, I love this game and I’m helplessly addicted.
“It might be our biggest game of the year,” Glu Mobile Chief Executive Officer Niccolo de Masi said in an interview. “We’re not surprised. Kim is a one-of-a-kind talent with an incredibly precise fit to the game engine that we tailored but already had in the company.” Glu Mobile stock has skyrocketed up more than 42% since the release of Kim Kardashian: Hollywood.
I think we can officially start the countdown for the “Farrah Abraham: Supermom” app! Or at least some sort of remote-controlled helicopter app from Bruce Jenner, right?
