But selling better than ever once it reverted to a paid game.
US developer Appy Entertainment has revealed that its FaceFighter iPhone game was downloaded 990,820 times in six days last week, during a free promotion.
The game, which was first launched last year as a paid title, was made free in order to promote Appy's new game Tune Runner.
The idea was that people downloading FaceFighter - a fun boxing game that lets players import photos of their friends for their opponents - would see a photo inviting them to download Tune Runner too.
The latter game has topped its category charts in App Stores around the world, but yesterday Appy returned FaceFighter to its previous price point of $1.99.
However, the game is now hovering inside the Top 50 in its category - compared to being outside the Top 150 before the free promotion.
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"By giving away a great game for free, we reached a million new customers, and now those customers are paying us back by sharing FaceFighter and recommending it to their friends, resulting in follow-on sales even when the game returned to full price," blogs the company.
Appy is now looking to capitalise by launching new in-app purchasing features for FaceFighter, including new fighters, weapons and finishing moves.
It's also working on an iPad version of the game "centered around a new feature possible only on the iPad".
