How to market a mobile game: the store rules that shape it

Apple says metadata should be appropriate for all audiences, so icons, screenshots and previews must adhere to a 4+ age rating even if the app is rated higher. Its own example is a game with violence: choose images that do not show a gruesome death or a gun pointed at a specific character. Google Play says that to be eligible for recommendations that use screenshots, a game must provide at least three screenshots at 1080px or more, all portrait or all landscape, showing real gameplay. So the store page is not the place for your most intense trailer frames; it is the place to show what playing looks like. Sizes and formats are in screenshot sizes.

Both stores require the same thing. Apple says apps offering “loot boxes” or other mechanisms that provide randomized virtual items for purchase must disclose the odds of receiving each type of item before purchase. Google Play says apps and games offering randomized virtual items from a purchase, including loot boxes, must clearly disclose the odds of receiving those items in advance of, and in close and timely proximity to, that purchase. If random rewards are part of what you market, the odds are part of the offer, not a page in settings.

Apple allows apps to incentivize users to take specific actions within the app, such as completing a level or watching an ad, but does not allow apps to force users to rate or review the app, download other apps, or take other store-related actions to access functionality or content. So locking a level until the player rates the game or installs another app is out, while rewards for play are fine. How to ask for ratings within the rules is in how to get more app reviews. On Google Play, outside approved gambling and pilot programs, games may not let players wager or pay real money, including in-app items bought with money, for a chance at a prize of real-world monetary value, and may not show calls to action such as “BET!” or “COMPETE!” for a cash prize.

Apple says in-app purchase may not be used to buy credit or currency for real money gaming of any kind, and apps offering real money gaming or lotteries must be licensed where they are used, geo-restricted to those locations and free on the App Store. Google Play allows real-money gambling only in apps it has approved, which must be free to download, must not use in-app billing and must keep out minors and unauthorized locations. Google also lists a simulated casino game that promotes or directs users to real money casinos as a violation, and says apps with simulated gambling content, such as social casino games, may not carry ads for gambling or real-money games. If your game has casino mechanics, market it as a game and keep real-money offers out of it.

Games have more ways into the stores than most apps. On the App Store, In-App Events such as a challenge can appear on the Games tab, in search and on your product page, and pre-orders let people order before launch; see how to promote an iOS app. On Google Play, pre-registration and promotional content events do the same; see how to promote an app on Google Play. Both stores take featuring nominations, covered in how to get featured. Censuus ranks apps by the real visit traffic they draw on the web, and games have their own category at games. Adding your game is free on the submit page; sponsorship raises placement and adds a followed link to your website, see the sponsor page. We do not promise downloads or store rankings, and this guide is not legal advice.