Demo Download to Game Sale Ratio

[CaptainD]

Just wondered if anyone had any good data (their own or other) of the correlation between the number of demo downloads and actual game sales for indie adventure games?  I know this is likely to vary quite dramatically but I would be interested anyway if someone does have some data they were willing to share.

[selmiak]

no data but a gut feeling: If the demo is crap and the game is great it will be like 1 out of 100 people will buy it. If the demo is great and the game is mediocre it will probably be more than 50 out of 100 people that buy the full product. But then what is crap for me can be solid gold for someone else... so: good press + good demo = instant win. (and a good economy where people have money for games... or maybe even a bad economy where people (buy and) play games to escape the depressing reality... not sure on that )

[Greg Squire]

What you are talking about is called the conversion rate. There's tons of info on the web to be found on this subject. Years ago I remember it being said on the indiegamer forums that a conversion rate around 1% or 2% was average. Of course a specific game can convert higher or lower than that.  Here's a few stats from the mobile and social games. http://www.gamesbrief.com/2011/11/conversion-rate/

[Paul Franzen]

Actually, I can help with that! As of January 2013, Life in the Dorms had a conversion rate of around 30%, from people downloading the trial game to actually buying it. Not sure how that compares to other games on Xbox Live Indie Games, though. Taught me the importance of a strong demo (or, in the case of XBLIG, a strong first eight minutes); if I'd designed the opening to be more bombastic I think we could've gotten that number up further.

[CaptainD]

Thanks all for your reply, especially Paul with your actual stats - very useful to know!

Obviously a good demo has a better chance of success so hopefully since CD has had a very good reception overall that's a good sign.