Pocket Gems has first multi-million dollar month

In only weeks since their announcement of $5 million in financing from Sequoia Capital, mobile games developer Pocket Gems is reporting their best month yet. The popular iOS gamemaker has just announced that they’ve had their first multi-million dollar month in sales.

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In only weeks since their announcement of $5 million in financing from Sequoia Capital, mobile games developer Pocket Gems is reporting their best month yet. The popular iOS gamemaker has just announced that they’ve had their first multi-million dollar month in sales.

While they aren’t confirming an exact figure, hitting multiple millions makes this a watershed moment for freemium mobile gaming. Each of Pocket Gems’ titles – Tap Zoo, Tap Zoo Christmas, Tap Store, Tap Farm, Tap Jungle – is available as a completely free download. This means Pocket Gems’ generates the bulk of their revenue from in-app purchases. Considering that Tap Zoo has been sitting near the top of the App Store’s “Highest Grossing” list since the game’s September release, the fact that this multi-million month announcement has come from of Pocket Gems should really come as no surprise.

In addition to their financial proclamations, Pocket Gems has also claimed 2.5 million new installs over the last month, bringing their install base to a whopping 18 million. Things have been going well since their Sequoia announcement, and it looks like they’re only going to be getting better. The company anticipates adding 40 new members to their San Francisco offices before the end of the year.

“We have big plans for 2011 as we pursue our mission to drive the evolution of mobile entertainment,” said Daniel Terry, Pocket Gems CEO and Co-Founder. “By expanding our engineering and art teams, we will be able to accelerate our time to market while continuing to develop titles that are more engaging for customers and raise the bar on production values.”

With Capcom’s Smurfs’ Village currently beating out Tap Zoo for top grossing freemium game, it seems that little blue men can equal big green money. Regardless of who’s on top, it should be interesting to see which company is next to set their freemium success story loose to a waiting public.

Jim Squires is the Editor-in-Chief of Gamezebo. Everything you see passes his eyes first, so we like to think of him as "the gatekeeper of cool stuff." He likes good games, great writing, and just can't say no to a hamburger. Also, he is not a bear.