iPhone game Orbital has won critical acclaim in spades, but that has yet to translate to stellar sales, says its PR agency TriplePoint PR.

In a post published on the company's blog, Sam Dalsimer writes that despite top-notch reviews and appreciative tweets from US celebs Ryan Seacrest and Dane Cook, the game's sales have not spiked.

"Orbital’s sales figures are somewhat more modest than the reviews would suggest," writes Dalsimer. "As of this writing the game has still sold far less than 100,000 units. That’s not even a gold record."

This is despite the fact that the average user is playing the game for 5.8 hours, with several having logged more than 100 hours of playtime.

Dalsimer says piracy may be partly to blame, since the game saw a piracy rate of 80% in its first week - although that has since dropped to 24%. As ever, one pirated copy doesn't necessarily equal one lost sale.

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His advice to developers: "Before you take out that second mortgage, sell your car, and bet it all on iPhone development, keep in mind that even the best apps are no guarantee of commercial success," he writes.

"App Store success isn’t so much about catching lightning in a bottle as it is about when your lightning strikes and what other bolts are coming down at the same time."