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Games industry statistics – How much money could you make from in-app purchases?

By on September 19, 2011

Wondering how much money you could make by introducing in-app purchases to your games? GAMESbrief has the figures you need to read on IAP revenues and players’ purchasing behaviours:

Last November, in-app purchases represented 30% of all iOS app store revenue. 34 of the top 100 grossing apps were free, monetised by in-app purchases, even though only 1.34% of all apps followed this model.

By June of this year, Epic Games had made over $10 million from Infinity Blade, of which between a third and a half came from in-app purchases.

Meanwhile, at XMG, approximately two-thirds of revenue now comes from virtual goods, up from only 10 percent a year ago…The reason is simple – selling virtual goods means that a small enthusiastic user base can carry a game’s economics.

The average transaction value for an iOS or Android in-app purchase is $14. That’s 14x the revenue that most developers get with a Lite + Premium strategy, and is based on an analysis of how 3.5 million consumers spend their money in games.

51% of revenue generated from in-app purchases comes from transactions of over $20. Of that 51%, 30% came from $50+ transactions suggesting that 15% of total revenue came from $50+ purchases. That means, to maximise revenue from IAP, you should have a strategy that enables players to spend $50 in your game.

Social Gold reports that once you get a player to spend a dollar, 56% of them come back to spend a second time and 25% of them spend three or more times.

About Zoya Street

I’m responsible for all written content on the site. As a freelance journalist and historian, I write widely on how game design and development have changed in the past, how they will change in the future, and how that relates to society and culture as a whole. I’m working on a crowdfunded book about the Dreamcast, in which I treat three of the game-worlds it hosted as historical places. I also write at Pocketgamer.biz and The Borderhouse.