There was a time when a mobile game’s popularity and its commercial success in App Store was measured in terms of number of downloads for that particular game. Over the time, as competition increased in the gaming world, new business models emerged for iPhone game developers. One such model is called Freemium where the game can be downloaded for free, but gamers have to pay for buying virtual currency or goods in the game. Now, a game’s popularity is measured in terms of its user engagement and its stimulating power to generate in-app purchases. Not that Premium model has disappeared, both models exists, but study suggests that Freemium models is generating more revenue for iPhone developers than Premium models.
Data from Flurry, tracking over 90,000 apps with its analytics service, measuring the amount of revenue generated per ranked position in the App Store, reveals that, in the last 6 months, Freemium model has gone very popular with iPhone developers and they are making more money from Freemium games than Premium games.
The chart above shows that 39 percent of the revenue generated by Apple’s App Store in January came from Freemium games, while premium games accounted for 61 percent of the revenue. Whereas data for June shows Freemium games accounting for 65 percent of the revenue while revenue from premium games has reduced to 35 percent.
Flurry data further reveals that the number of gamers who spend money in a free game accounts for 0.5 percent to 6 percent. Although it means that over 90 percent of players are not willing to spend, it also means that players who love a game are willing to spend more than the $0.99 charged for a game.
The above data clearly shows that Freemium model is getting traction among iPhone game developers and is surely here to stay.
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