Last year, Google launched a new service, the task of which is to enable users to play cool games even on a simple smartphone. Users have been waiting for such a “gift” from Google for a long time, and when they waited, they began to massively download this application from Google Play. As a result, now the number of such downloads has reached more than one million, and to someone this figure may seem large, but not everything is so simple, and if not for a couple of significant “but”, it could have been even more. Of course, the popularity of Google Stadia will continue to grow, but there must be a few more conditions for that. Although, the situation is somewhat similar to what is happening with the Google Pixel and its sales statistics.
Google Stadia's first major anniversary – 1,000,000 downloads.
What is Google Stadia
Last week, Google changed a rule that has been in place since the beginning of Google Stadia. It was not even a rule, but rather an artificial limitation that allowed everything to be tested and increased power so that users did not experience discomfort and could enjoy the game.
As a result, according to Google Play and download statistics, the number of app downloads has increased dramatically and has already reached one million. If you look at the previous result of the download statistics, then everything looks quite impressive.
The service was launched on November 7, 2019 in the Google Play store. A little over 4 months later, it reached 500,000 downloads. It happened on March 10, 2020. Now, three months later, Google Play proudly points out that Google Stadia has been downloaded over a million times. Wondering when the next mark will be reached?
The idea behind Google Stadia is good, but it needs to be well developed.
What phones does Google Stadia run on?
Of course, the transfer of the service to mass devices greatly influenced the statistics, because until then only select phones could access it. When everything was just beginning, the coveted application could be downloaded only on smartphones of the Google Pixel family (except for the very first one). Later, support was extended to current Samsung models, Asus, Razer and even OnePlus.
Google will continue to work on expanding the list of supported devices, but it's too early to talk about when this will be. Nevertheless, already now users can try to use the service on their device. To do this, you just need to activate the testing feature and agree that the games may not work as well as it was originally intended. This will not only give people the opportunity to try what it is, but will also allow the company to collect more data in order to understand how to further develop the service and expand its official support.
What's new in Google Stadia
Interestingly, in order to grow its user base, Google has also added touch gamepad support, which was not available before. Before playing games on Google Stadia, the user had to connect a third-party gamepad or one released for games through Google Stadia to the phone.
The new settings also provide the ability to adjust the streaming quality for each device. This means PC gamers no longer need a mobile app to manage every setting. To develop the service at this stage, various discounts are provided for users, and for those who have just joined Google Stadia, there is an opportunity to get a cool game for free within a month. Sounds good, but in the end, is it a lot when an app has a million users?
Will Google Stadia really hit the mark?
The main problem with Google Stadia is precisely the fact that the company has not yet brought it to mass use, limiting the audience to users of literally a few smartphones, many of whom do not even know they are among the lucky ones. When a company allows more people to use Stadia, then a lot will change and the audience may start to grow faster, but it may not.
Only users can ensure the true popularity of the service. So far, everything is fine with this, but we need to promote support for new devices.
One of the reasons Google Stadia's user base will not grow is that its games are very expensive. There is a subscription that allows you to play different games as part of monthly payments, but there is nothing really interesting about it. Something that is interesting to many people is offered for tens of dollars and sometimes the price even tends to the $ 100 mark. There is no need to talk about mass character in this case. It is clear that computing power is expensive, but this is more important for owners of inexpensive devices. So far, the service is available only for those whose smartphones are already good at playing games.
Another important factor that hinders the development and spread of the service is its unavailability in a large number of markets. It works in only a few countries, and so far it simply cannot be of interest to the general user.
All this suggests that a million downloads for a regular application on Google Play can be a lot, but not enough to be considered a success. If the price gets slightly lower and Google Stadia expands into a wide range of markets, it will indeed lead to significant growth. For now, the company can only celebrate this small anniversary.