VLC media player
61
Quality Score
Solid
VLC media player
Medium confidence
✍️ bumetric analysis
“
VLC media player is an iOS app from VideoLAN in the Photo & Video category, currently rated 3.7★ across 5,551 ratings. Initial signal reads as largely positive sentiment, users highlighting consistency and feature depth.
Quality Score is 61: Solid (established niche player). For a Photo & Video app, that means established niche player. The full BU Investment Matrix below scores 8 dimensions including monetisation, growth, and operational risk.
Track changes month-over-month in the Performance section below: live snapshot history and revenue forecast included.
💰 Monthly revenue · now vs forecast
● Right now
$5.0K
per month
→
12-mo forecast
$5.2K – $10.8K
per month
→
24-mo forecast
$6.4K – $19.2K
per month
MID tierFREE
💡 Grow this revenue
Free AI audit of this app’s store listing
- Title & subtitle keyword fit
- Description hook & conversion structure
- Screenshots, ratings, reviews strategy
Typical impact: +2-5× organic installs
📊 Performance Tracking LIVE
Loading…
Rating
—
Reviews
—
Forecast Revenue / mo
—
Snapshots tracked
0
since first record
ONE-TIME · BUILD
💰 Estimated build cost
$140K
↳ What it cost to build · not monthly revenue
Likely range $105K – $190K
$25K · MVP floor
$100K · indie scale
$500K+ · studio build
📈
Pays back in ~3.9y at current MRR
Synthetic estimate. Inputs: category complexity, file size, screen count, monetization layer, platform reach, age × team-size proxy. Calibrated against 2024-2026 indie-agency rate surveys. Full math + source list on /methodology.
Where the money goes
| 🧱 MVP baseline (design + 1-store ship) | +$28K |
| 📱 5 unique screens × $4.5K | +$22K |
| 📦 Asset bundle (186 MB) | +$40K |
| ⚙ Photo & Video complexity ×1.55 | +$49K |
Total estimate
$140K
ONE-TIME · EXIT VALUE
💵 Estimated acquisition value
$40K
↳ What it would sell for · not monthly revenue
Marketplace range $30K – $50K · 14× MRR multiple
💸
~0.3× build cost (under-water)
Synthetic estimate. Multiple band derived from ad-supported + age, rating quality, category demand, and user-base maturity. Calibrated against 2024-2026 indie-app-marketplace closed-deal medians. Full math + comparable deal list on /methodology.
How the multiple was built
| 📺 Ad-supported base | 15× MRR |
| ⭐ ★ rating 3.5-4.0 (mixed) | -8% |
Final multiple
14× MRR
👥 Estimated audience size
775K
Lifetime downloads (US-equivalent)
Monthly active
135K
Daily active
40K
Synthetic estimate from ratings × category benchmarks. Calibrated against 2024-2026 mobile-attribution retention + DAU/MAU reports. Numbers are US-storefront-equivalent — true global audience can be 5-10× larger for international apps. Full math + source list on /methodology.
How we sized it
| 📲 Photo & Video engagement | ~140 installs / rating |
| 🔁 Photo & Video D30 retention | 18% |
| 📍 DAU / MAU stickiness | 0.30 |
DAU / MAU
30% sticky
🔬
How we forecast this revenue
MEDIUM CONFIDENCEBaseline
$5.0K/mo · ML-estimated from 234 triggers
Growth rate
+4.0% MoM · MID tier baseline (compound monthly)
6 months
$4.7K – $7.9K
12 months
$5.2K – $10.8K
24 months
$6.4K – $19.2K
Compound growth at +4.0% MoM (tier baseline for MID). Range widens with horizon — typical noise band ±25% at 6mo.. Ranges widen with horizon — distant futures carry more uncertainty.
📊
BU Investment Matrix
Stalled · 37/100MID TIERFREE (NO MONETIZATION)no growth momentumGrowth Velocity
5.0
Founder Strength
4.5
Product Quality
5.1
Revenue Strength
3.7
Monetization Maturity
0.5
Defensibility
4.5
Market Position
2.0
Operational Safety
4.4
- 💰 Revenue: Modest — $3K - $7K/mo · MID tier · medium confidence, trajectory unclear.
- ⭐ Quality: 3.69★ across 5,551 reviews — below category median.
- 📍 Market: Not yet charting in any of the 9 monitored markets.
- 📈 Growth: Insufficient signal to assess trajectory.
- ⚠️ Risk: Elevated — bug mentions above category norm, rating drift -0.37 ★ (recent 50 vs lifetime).
🎯 For competitors: Vulnerable. Quality drift + slow updates create a clear opening for a fresh competitor with active dev cadence.
💵 For acquirers: Estimated asking range 12-22× monthly = $60K-$110K. Discount applied for operational risk..
Composite of 8 dimensions computed deterministically from public signals — no LLM, every score traces back to a measurable input. Default weights shown; "compete" / "acquire" / "invest" lenses re-weight without re-fetching.
Range:
💰 Forecast Revenue / mo
MODELRevenue forecast computed from BU's 234 trigger model on each snapshot. Calibrated against ground-truth from 58 verified-revenue apps.
🔬Forecast Breakdown — Why This Estimate?Top 8 of 8 triggers
Our ML model uses 200+ signals from public data. These are the most influential for this app:
| bugsREVIEW | −$1,800 | |
| 5 starREVIEW | +$1,800 | |
| excellent appREVIEW | +$1,500 | |
| Low install base (5,551 ratings)METRIC | +$1,500 | |
| Mature app (12y old)METRIC | +$1,500 | |
| Multilingual (48 languages)METRIC | +$1,500 | |
| slowREVIEW | −$1,200 | |
| Ad-supported / freemiumMETRIC | +$600 |
METRIC = structural app data · REVIEW = mined from user reviews · ✓ VERIFIED = Stripe-verified anchor (TrustMRR)
📈 Reviews Growth
LIVECumulative review count from first BU snapshot. Each point = a tracked update.
⭐ Rating Trend
LIVEAverage rating evolution. Updates with each new review batch.
🆕 What's New · v3.7.3
· stability improvements
· fix expansion of playlists stored on the network
· fix expansion of playlists stored on the network
Profile & Insights
Everything we know — and don't — about this app and its company.
Identification
- App name
- VLC media player
- Developer
- VideoLAN
- Bundle ID
- org.videolan.vlc-ios
- App Store URL
- Open in App Store
- Category
- Photo & Video
- Content rating
- 4+
- Languages
- AF, AR, EU, BE, BS, BR, KM, CA, CO, CS, DA, NL, EN, FO, FI, FR, GL, KA, DE, EL, HE, HU, IS, ID, IT, JA, KO, LV, MS, MR, NB, FA, PL, PT, RO, RU, SC, ZH, SI, SK, SL, ES, SV, TA, TH, ZH, TR, UK
Company
- Website
- www.videolan.org
- Tagline
- VLC media player
- Description
- Not found
- Founded
- Not found
- HQ / Address
- Not found
- Employees
- Not found
- Logo
- Not found
Revenue
- Verified revenue / mo
- Not found
- AI revenue estimate / mo
- Not found
- AI annual estimate
- Not found
- ML model estimate / mo
- $3.0K/mo
- Top-grossing rank
- Outside top 100 in US Photo & Video
- All-time revenue
- Not found
- Pricing
- Not found
Founder
Founder data not yet collected for this app.
Funding
Funding data not yet collected for this app.
Press & Links
Press & Links data not yet collected for this app.
Contacts & Socials
- Socials
- facebook facebook.com/vlc.media.player · twitter mux.com · youtube youtube.com
- Not found
- Phone
- 3.0.23 2026-01-08
- Contact page
- videolan.org/contact.html
- About page
- videolan.org/videolan/team
📈Ratings growth5,551 ratings+6% lifetimeShow 3-year history estimate ▾
Tracked (37 weeks) Pre-tracking estimate (36 weeks) · model-based, ±5% noise · anchored to release date and current value
🌍Geographic ReachNot ranked
This app is currently outside the top 100 grossing in all 9 countries we monitor (US, UK, DE, FR, JP, CA, AU, BR, IN). Niche or new apps often launch this way — popularity rankings appear once daily revenue clears the regional threshold.
Profile is built from iTunes Lookup + developer site scrape + ML revenue model. Empty fields show "Not found" — additional sources (Crunchbase, X, IndieHackers, Acquire.com) coming.
📝 About this app
VLC is a free and open source cross-platform multimedia player.
It can play all your movies, shows and music in most formats directly without conversion.
It allows file synchronization with Dropbox, GDrive, OneDrive, Box, iCloud Drive, iTunes, direct downloads and through Wi-Fi sharing as well as streaming from SMB, FTP, SFTP, NFS, UPnP/DLNA media servers and the web.
VLC offers support for advanced subtitles including full SSA compatibility, multi-track audio, playback speed control and rendering through Chromecast.
VLC is completely free and open source.
It can play all your movies, shows and music in most formats directly without conversion.
It allows file synchronization with Dropbox, GDrive, OneDrive, Box, iCloud Drive, iTunes, direct downloads and through Wi-Fi sharing as well as streaming from SMB, FTP, SFTP, NFS, UPnP/DLNA media servers and the web.
VLC offers support for advanced subtitles including full SSA compatibility, multi-track audio, playback speed control and rendering through Chromecast.
VLC is completely free and open source.
App Specs
🔐 Own this app? Claim & verify MRR →💾 186 MB🔞 4+📱 iOS 9.0+🔖 v3.7.3🔄 updated 0d ago🌐 AF, AR, EU, BE, BS +43📂 Photo & Video💰 Paid
📅
What Worked™ · Development Pipeline
10 EVENTS TRACKEDDetected changes in this app over its tracked lifetime — each event links cause (what changed) to effect (what moved). Sorted newest first.See full history →Version history →
2026-05
⭐
Rating ↑ 3.31 → 3.69 (improved 0.38★)
2026-05
📈
Crossed 1,000 ratings — social-proof flywheel kicking in
2026-03
📈
Crossed 500 ratings — social-proof flywheel kicking in
2026-03
📈
Crossed 500 ratings — social-proof flywheel kicking in
2025-01
📈
Crossed 100 ratings — social-proof flywheel kicking in
2024-10
📈
Crossed 50 ratings — social-proof flywheel kicking in
2024-09
📈
Crossed 10 ratings — social-proof flywheel kicking in
2024-09
⭐
Rating ↑ 3.00 → 3.67 (improved 0.67★)
2024-09
🚀
First tracked snapshot — initial data captured
2024-09
⭐
Rating ↑ 1.00 → 3.00 (improved 2.00★)
🗣
Voice of Customer
Based on 850 reviews across 8 markets● 57% positive · ● 16% neutral · ● 27% negative · Rating drift: -0.37★ (declining — recent 50: 3.32★ vs lifetime: 3.69★)
VADER compound sentiment per quarter (−1 = fully negative, +1 = fully positive). Each point ≥ 5 reviews.
Sentiment by country (−1 to +1)
🇦🇺 AU
+0.38
🇮🇳 IN
+0.34
🇺🇸 US
+0.33
🇬🇧 GB
+0.30
🇨🇦 CA
+0.26
🇯🇵 JP
+0.05
🇧🇷 BR
+0.03
🇩🇪 DE
-0.34
Top praise themes
picture picture ×16 please add ×14 apple music ×14 please fix ×12 open source ×12 audio files ×8 first second ×8 almost perfect ×8
Top complaint themes
please fix ×14 doesn work ×13 picture picture ×11 last update ×7 pro max ×7 iphone pro ×6 latest update ×6 one video ×6
Risk signals
Bug mentions: 11%
🌍
Multi-Country Performance
Available in 8 of 9 monitored markets| Market | Rating | Reviews | Current version |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🇦🇺 AU | 3.54273★ | 433 | 3.54273★ this version |
| 🇧🇷 BR | 3.51304★ | 230 | 3.51304★ this version |
| 🇨🇦 CA | 3.41156★ | 588 | 3.41156★ this version |
| 🇩🇪 DE | 3.51208★ | 869 | 3.51208★ this version |
| 🇬🇧 GB | 3.47421★ | 698 | 3.47421★ this version |
| 🇮🇳 IN | 3.72154★ | 4,155 | 3.72154★ this version |
| 🇯🇵 JP | 2.8918★ | 573 | 2.8918★ this version |
| 🇺🇸 US | 3.69386★ | 5,589 | 3.69386★ this version |
🔔
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📝 Description
95
BU Score · Transcendent
Full revenue analysis
Read the article-style breakdown for VLC media player: category rank, percentile, growth signal, comparable apps, and how the forecast is calibrated against verified-MRR anchors in this niche.
Similar apps in Photo & Video
About this analysis
Why medium confidence: 5,551 ratings · no founder-verified revenue (model estimate only).
❓ Frequently Asked Questions
4 answers · auto-generated from this app's public dataHow much does VLC media player make per month?▴
Based on our ML-calibrated revenue forecast, VLC media player earns approximately $3.0K/mo. This is a US-storefront-equivalent estimate; global revenue can be several times larger for internationally-distributed apps. See the methodology page for the full formula and confidence bands.
What apps are like VLC media player?▴
Browse the full Photo & Video category catalog to find similar apps with revenue, build cost, audience and tech stack data. Each /p/{slug} page also shows a Compare side-by-side widget with three peer apps from the same niche.
Who makes VLC media player?▴
VLC media player is published by VideoLAN on the Apple App Store. See the full publisher portfolio (other apps by the same developer) via the More by developer block on the product page above.
What is VLC media player's BU Score?▴
VLC media player has a BU Score of 61/100 (Solid). The score combines App Store rating, ratings count, monetization model and revenue signals calibrated against founder-verified MRR anchors. See the BU Score formula.