Subway Surfers still gets 30 million downloads per month almost 5 years after launch

Endless runner game Subway Surfers is still achieving 30 million downloads per month, almost five years after it was first released. The free-to-play title is developed by Kiloo and Sybo Games, who also revealed that it has remained in the top 50 download charts for Google Play and the App Store since it launched in 2012.

Subway Surfers’ continued success is thanks, in part, to its frequent updates and accessible gameplay: it takes seconds to learn the one-tap gestures and the mechanics required to play.

Kiloo’s Director of Publishing Jeppe Bisbjerg doesn’t see its popularity slowing down soon either, stating: “With the game’s fifth birthday coming up in May, Kiloo & Sybo have big plans to keep making our awesome Subway Surfers community happy in 2017 and beyond.”

Irrespective of your thoughts whether it’s a good game, Subway Surfers’ popularity makes it a good game for developers to examine if they’re seeking to create free-to-play Android arcade games. The title features easily recognizable characters and tropes, intuitive controls, regular updates and it never exceeds a 100 MB download size — ensuring it can always be downloaded quickly and with mobile data, no matter what content gets added.

Subway Surfers hit one billion downloads more than a year ago in September 2015 and was, according to one source, the third most downloaded mobile game of 2016 when combining Android and iOS downloads (the same as the aforementioned 30 million figure, I presume).

What do you think makes Subway Surfers so enduring? Let me know in the comments.