App Store Analysis: Top 10 goes 99c, while EA's FIFA and Madden dominate $10 pricing

First up confessions. For various prosaic reasons, there was no App Store Analysis last week (27th September), so this week's report is something of a doubleheader.

Appropriately, two major movements have been apparent on the US Top 100 during that time.

Both are longterm trends we've experienced before: the way 99c games can quickly enter the top of the charts, and the ability of EA Mobile and Gameloft to extract the highest prices for their releases.

In the first case, US publisher Freeverse linked up with US developer Graveck to take its previous game 10 Balls, 7 Cups and rebrand, remake, and re-release it as Skee-Ball: an official US licence.

The 99c game has bombed up the charts thanks to viral approval, although it did get TV coverage on the Friday of its release on the Fox channel.

It's currently at #2 on the US Top 100, which goes to prove the power of a good licence and a good publisher.

Equally interesting is the case of Boom Brigade, a 99c line drawing topdown shooter game from Finnish developer 10tons. Again, a title that didn't attract much press attention on release, it's steadily rising up the charts; currently #10.

Meanwhile, Backbreaker Football (99c), from UK developers Ideaworks3D and technology company NaturalMotion has ridden the wave of the start of the NFL season - it's effectively an American football tackle simulator - and it's currently at #16.

When it comes to more expensive games doing the business on the charts, you have to look towards EA Mobile and Gameloft.

The best example is the arrival of FIFA 10, which despite launching at $9.99, is on the US Top 100 - a market not renown for its love of soccer - at #14.

Gameloft's Dungeon Hunter ($6.99) also continues to climb the chart since its re-appearance after a previous bug-related withdrawal. It's now in the top 10 at #8. Similarly Gameloft's Brain Challenge 2: Think Again ($4.99) is at #33.

Other interesting movements include the Peggling(TM) of Godzilab's iBlast Moki over the weekend, which immediately kicked the physics-based platform into the Top 100 at #78.

It's also great to see the Daniel Johnston-inspired Hi, How Are You (99c) at #76, and free-running Canabalt in at #76 despite costing $2.99.

Gamevil's Baseball Superstar 2010 is in at #82 despite its $5.99 price tag.

Finally, it's fascinating to see an app which provides 30 Reward Points in the online game Mafia Wars (99c) is in the charts at #67. Apple doesn't allow developers to sell their in-game currency as an in-app micro-transaction so this is one way they can work around the issue.

Thanks to the release of games such as FIFA 10, the average price of games on the US App Store is up this week to $2.77, which is significantly higher than we've seen in September.

However the two trends mean the average price of the top 10 is much lower that previously in September - $1.79 - while the bulk of the more expensive games are found between the 11 - 30, and 71 - 80 positions.

In terms of the price distribution of games, EA Mobile has the only two $9.99 games in the charts in the shape of FIFA 10 and Madden NFL 10.

It's also due to EA and Gameloft (and Firemint) that the $6.99 slot is so well populated; six games is the most we've seen.

And 11 is the most $1.99 games we've recorded; probably because the number of $2.99 games down from its previous average.

After several weeks with only EA and Gameloft having three or more games on the US charts, Sony Pictures Television makes its first appearance.

Its featured games are Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy! and iZombieland, but what's significant is that with these brands, it's been able to maintain a good price, even if all three games are outside the top 50.

Similarly, the average price of games from EA and Gameloft is high.

Indeed, in both cases, these are historic highs for both companies: the result of them spending resources developing top quality games, while limiting their number of games priced at 99c or $1.99. EA has one at 99c and Gameloft one each at 99c and $1.99.

N.B. Freeverse has three games in the Top 100; two it's published (Flick Fishing and Skee-Ball) and one it's developed (the Paramount published Top Gun), but as this section is strictly about publishers, I've not included the company. If I had, its average price would have been $1.66.