Mum-of-three’s elf cam app more popular than Disney and Sky

Elf Cam founder Suzie Carpenter and her three children

Credit: Suzie Carpenter

An app designed by a British mother of three has beaten entertainment giants like Disney and Sky in the App Store charts before Christmas.

Elf Cam, which lets families “see” elves using their smartphone cameras, reached the number four spot on the App Store’s free entertainment app chart in December, beating well-known services.

“It’s surreal,” said Suzie Carpenter, a part-time fitness instructor who paid for the app’s development using her savings. “I have never worked so hard in my life than the last month and a half,” she said.

Suzie Carpenter's Elf Cam app

The app has now gained more than 150,000 downloads, rivalling major entertainment brands such as Disney’s TV streaming app in the run-up to the Christmas period.

“I remember looking when we were six or seven [on the App Store chart],” Ms Carpenter said. “We then carried on. I was like ‘This is insane, I’m at number four. This doesn’t happen! I’m just a normal mum. I’m bringing up three kids, I’m doing the school run, I’m taking my kids to haircuts. I’m taking them to clubs. This is not normal.”

The app began to go viral after Ms Carpenter and her family promoted the app on local Facebook groups, leading to 18,000 downloads in a week.

Eventually an American TikTok user posted a video of the app on the short video service which attracted 2.6m views.

Elf Cam app allows families to see elves

The cost of paying for a developer to make the app meant that Ms Carpenter could not afford to pay social media influencers to promote the software online. 

“All my savings were very much taken up on building the app,” she said, “so I didn’t have the funds to ask for anybody to collaborate with me.”

Ms Carpenter is planning to expand the Elf Cam app next year and is considering developing similar software which could be used to create videos of the Easter bunny and the tooth fairy.