Did you know – half of all gaming revenue comes from 0.19% of mobile gamers

According to a gaming monetization report by Swrve, half of the revenue generated by free-to-play games comes from just 0.19% of mobile gamers out there. To put things in perspective, in-app gaming purchases are expected to top $1.9 billion by the end of 2016, which means that around half of this figure (nearly $900 million) will come from less than 1% of the number of mobile gamers. What's up with that? The report suggests this has something to do with the critical importance of the first day an app is installed for revenue. Their metrics claim 59% of the first purchases in a freemium app are made on the first day, resulting in a massive 55.5% of the app’s total revenue being generated on the very same day.

the freemium model makes the bulk of its revenue on day one.

Although some 56% of first-time payers go on to make another purchase in the next two weeks, Swrve's report maintains that the freemium model makes the bulk of its revenue on day one. So if you haven’t purchased anything on the first day of installing, the likelihood of doing so drops significantly over the first 72 hours. With over half the revenue coming in on day one, day two revenue drops dramatically to 14%, and to just 4.5% on day three. Thus, a freemium game is poised to make 70% of its money in the first 48 hours of its life, coming from just 0.19% of all players.

The report shows only 1.9% of players will probably make an in-app purchase in a month, meaning the vast majority of players deliver zero revenue to freemium game developers. But with the average monthly spend of said 1.9% of players being $24.66, based on an average of 1.8 purchases per month and an average individual purchase value of $13.82, even this miniscule percentage proves sustainable for game makers.

source: Swrve via Android Authority