It's no secret that mobile games are much cheaper than their console counterparts and that a most of them are free or near free. We also know that the vast majority of mobile gamers would never pay for their games nor for in-game items. So why do publishers and developers continue to release games for such a cruel market, and how do they get their money back?
The answer came from Flurry, an analytics provider for mobile games on Apple and Android devices, which studied the market and found that almost 5% of mobile gamers who pay for in-game items spend more than $50 on in-game items per game.
Moreover, the study found that mobile gamers who pay for in-game items spend an average of $14 in each game and that less than 2% of them spend 99 cents or less.
The study concedes that only 3% on consumers pay money at all for mobile games, and that the above numbers apply only to those 3%; however.
"Why then would so few consumers spend just $1 in freemium games when this price point is so popular among premium games?" Flurry's GM of Games Jeferson Valadares pondered. "Because freemium games drive a different decision-making mindset for consumers. They simply are deciding whether or not to spend."
