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multiple downloads shortly after release with far less sales.

A topic by reiko-samaa created Apr 12, 2024 Views: 378 Replies: 5

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Hi, maybe it's normal but i recently released something new, it sold 4 times over 2 days, not much, but it was downloaded 10 times. While i know that it's possible that someone just downloaded it like 7 times, i'm wondering if there might be the possibility that theres a chance that someone shared the downloadlink (which should usually be account linked) so others could download it as well.

So i point that out here, it's not really a question, aside from me wondering if others have that too within a short timespan after relase, or if they may be a bug or something. (I hope it's not wrong to post that here, and with that tag.)

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hechelion249 days ago(+1)

It is always a possibility to share an account, however, if they want to "hack" you as the games on Itch do not have DRM, the most normal thing is for a person to download the game only once and then upload it to a hosting like mega , filesharing, etc. Since it is much easier to download files from those sites than to share the itch account.

The most common thing is that a person tried to download the file several times, Itch counts as a download each time they try to start the download and not how many times the entire game was actually downloaded.

If, for example, I have 3 errors during the download, I will have tried to download the game 4 times, Itch will count 4 downloads, but the game was actually downloaded completely only once.

Normally, when you have hundreds or thousands of downloads, that number of errors is tiny, but if you only have 4 copies sold and you just happened to have someone who had a problem on their internet, it is a normal scenario that you can have 10 downloads.

The strange thing would be to have 4,000 copies sold and 10,000 downloads.

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redonihunter249 days ago

Itch counts as a download each time they try to start the download

This is useful information. Is this observation or confirmed?

My expectancy would have been, that it needs to be completed downloads. And maybe even unique completed downloads.

Or at least unique downloads, if incomplete download count.

It skews and misleads statistics, if there is trouble on the network. Like a few months ago.

My guess would have been additional downloads for a mobile device. From quickly glancing at the titles it looked more like comics and not games.

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hechelion249 days ago(+1)

This is useful information. Is this observation or confirmed?

Both, it has been said several times in the forums and if you have doubts you can try, take a free game of yours.

Open an incognito window, try downloading the game twice and cancel the download before it finishes and check the itch metrics again.

They show 2 downloads, but the game was never really downloaded.

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redonihunter249 days ago

Good to know. (I, uh, uhm, I cannot test this. The stuff I uploaded so far is 5kb ;-)

But the download has to have started, I hope. Must be so. Otherwise, how should the counter know, which file was downloaded.

Oh, and for anyone landing here by searching comments: browser games played in the itch app can show up as downloads, even though they are not downloadable.

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reiko-samaa249 days ago

I see, thanks for the info

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