Just 0.19% of gamers drives half the revenue for mobile games that try to lure you into in-app purchases
King.com / YouTubeCandy Crush tries to get you with in-app purchases.
Just 0.19% of mobile gamers drives a staggering half of the revenue for games that use in-app purchases.
The "freemium" game model is simple. You make a game free to play, but then offer all sorts of bonuses to players who shell out real money to buy them through in-app purchases. These could be power-ups, or extra lives, or less time to wait between your next play session.
Often, a little notification pops up that asks you if you just wouldn't rather pay a few bucks and have some sort of obstacle removed from your otherwise-blissful fun.
Who actually says "Yes" and clicks the buy button? A surprisingly small percentage of people, according to research on user behavior in February, 2016, from marketing company Swrve. The research looked at 40 "freemium" games and over 20 million players.
Swrve found that 48% of revenue came from the top 10% of paying players, which represented just 0.19% of all players. Paying players spent an average of $24.66 per month.
Here is the breakdown of how many purchases paying players made in a month:
Swerve