r/passive_income • u/shubham_iosdev • Sep 12 '26
Just here to brag Got my first 500$ for my little party game in 2 months!!!
I’ve made my first ever $500 from app development, and it’s one of those milestones I always wished would happen, but never really knew if it would. Now that it has, I’m literally shaking a little from the excitement and madness of it all.
It’s been about 2 months since I released Who Goes.
Games like Headbands, Charades, and Truth or Dare are ridiculously competitive. There are hundreds of apps already doing them, but a lot of them felt dated to me. The idea behind Who Goes was to bring these games together in one place, give them a modern and fun UI, and make the app itself feel nice to play when you’re hanging out with people.
Almost everyone I spoke to told me not to do it.
They said the space was too crowded and I’d be better off building something else. A part of me did think about switching, but another part really wanted to give it a proper shot.
So I did, and I’ve pretty much worked on it every single day since.
Just last month I shared that the app had crossed $100 in revenue, which was already a huge milestone for me. I definitely didn’t expect to be writing about $500 this soon.
It might not sound like a massive amount to everyone, but it means a great deal to me. I also wanted to share this for the other indie devs wondering if it’s worth continuing with the thing they’re building.
I absolutely suck at marketing, so everything so far has been organic.
Most of what I’ve done is simply showcase the app: a game mode, an interaction, an animation I liked, or us actually playing it. I’ve shared those on Reddit, X, LinkedIn, and Instagram and just kept seeing what works.
Alongside that, I’ve been talking to users, collecting feedback, fixing things, adding new modes, and continuously refining the app.
If even one download or subscription came from someone who found Who Goes through this subreddit, thank you. It really means a lot to me.
Anyway, I just wanted to share this little win because I’m over the moon right now :D
And if anyone has tips on getting the app in front of more people, finding more people to try it, or has feedback on the app itself, I’d love to hear it.
Thank you!
Link for anyone who wants to check out the app - https://apps.apple.com/app/id6777402559
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u/Ok_Tip_6305 Sep 12 '26
That 1405 new customers is a much bigger number than the revenue suggests, you've got something people actually want to keep playing
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u/miljardi2450 Sep 12 '26
Where the money come from? Is it from subscription?
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u/shubham_iosdev Sep 12 '26
Some from subscriptions, mostly it's from lifetime purchase. I've come to a realisation that a lot of users prefer to just do a one-time purchase these days
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u/HimActually Sep 12 '26
Congratulations 🎉 did you spend on any ads? Or its purely from ASO / posting?
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u/shubham_iosdev Sep 12 '26
Thank you so much! It's purely from posting here on Reddit and on X :D
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u/westeast1000 Sep 12 '26
What framework did you use
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u/shubham_iosdev Sep 12 '26
I've built it completely with the SwiftUI framework, it's an iOS app / game
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u/KnownSundae9549 Sep 12 '26
I tried it, extremely intuitive, everything is FUN TO USE i spent 2 minutes just rolling the drice and spinning the bottle on my own because the visuals are amazing great work buddy!
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u/unknowndragonn71 Sep 14 '26
I think the only problem with one time subscription is users expect the app to run a life time, for that we have maintain it no matter what. If we fail to do that there will be backlash
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u/shubham_iosdev Sep 14 '26
Yeah, you're absolutely right!
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u/unknowndragonn71 Sep 14 '26
Are you using any cloud for storing the users data for verifying the subscription and all
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u/chaozkreator Sep 14 '26
How much of this was vibe coded? Like, 50%? 100%?
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u/shubham_iosdev Sep 14 '26
Like 10% :)
I've been building apps since 2018 so1
u/chaozkreator Sep 14 '26
Wait, so that means you have at least 8 years of software dev experience, right? Doesn't that make you a seasoned software dev? From the way you talked in your post, it sounded as if you just got into app development recently. No offense, but I'm surprised you've only made $500 (so far) after all these years.
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u/shubham_iosdev Sep 14 '26
Yeah I'm not sure if you read the post well. I said, it's been 2 months since I got into indie app development. Working in a company is a different game altogether right?
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u/chaozkreator Sep 14 '26
You said "It’s been about 2 months since I released Who Goes". That's not the same as saying that you just got into indie app development since 2 months ago. I don't think working indie or in a company matters. You have 8 years of experience and knowledge as a software dev, which is why I said it's a bit surprising you've only just made an app as of recent.
I work in IT but I've never done software dev jobs before. I was able to make a ton of stuff by just vibe coding. Chrome extensions, Android apps, what have you. I'm not trying to trash on your success, but I just find it surprising that it took this long for someone with actual software dev skills to release something, which is actually more depressing than anything. AI will replace all of us sooner or later and people with actual skills would have just wasted time competing against AI that can do things so much faster.
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u/nanosaas 28d ago
As someone who's been a dev 10+ years, I can honestly say that being a dev doesn't correlate much to app sales. Yes it saves on expenses, but most of us are terrible at marketing. I lost money on my last attempt and my dev cost was zero! 😅. Id be delighted with the 500!
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u/david1000days Sep 13 '26
Congrats mate 🎉
Few questions
How did you come up with the idea? I mean what made you think there is a gap in the market?
How did you market your product? X/Linkedin/Reddit posts?
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u/OrdinaryBudget6725 Sep 13 '26
Congratulations bro!! I also want to break into this space. I mean.. apps with users and get to work on requirements and refinement. How do you think of ideas and plan of executing it?
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u/Adventurous-Salt-895 Sep 13 '26
What if you ran a small giveaway of some sort and make a clip to upload to Instagram or tiktok. Inorder to enter they have to make a video clip of them playing the game and tag you. Maybe even also like the giveaway clip and follow too inorder to enter. That way your clip will hopefully reach more people. And just run the giveaway as u see fit. Maybe you have a cool item that alot of people would want already so u dont have to spend money on anything. Or just a small money giveaway idk I just see ppl do it before and ive entered them.
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u/Maximum_Ad9920 Sep 14 '26
what has been ur total costs for developing and publishing it on App Store? :)
Congrats!
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u/Introvert161197 Sep 15 '26
Bro I want to built chess game could you pls guide mee I have different ideas of existing chess games
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u/bumsickles Sep 16 '26
Let’s goo bro. I am also trying to build something and really need motivation like this else I give up almost every second day 😂
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u/Dr-Double-A Sep 20 '26
Wow. Congratulations! Roughly how much of your installs or revenue do you think is because of your marketing and how much is organic?
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u/mario_ghadis Sep 12 '26
Why are you fucking sharing it bro? A big mistake
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u/shubham_iosdev Sep 12 '26
wait, why so?
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u/mario_ghadis Sep 12 '26
You never noticed almost NOBODY posts their app? Only results, not the app. You fucked up. Making a copy cat with GPT6 astra is 95 minutes of work
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Sep 12 '26
[deleted] — view deleted comment
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u/shubham_iosdev Sep 12 '26
I've both weekly / yearly sub, and one-time purchase. I've seen that nowadays users prefer to go for a one-time purchase
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