Shockingly low number of mobile gamers actually contribute in-game revenue

When is the last time you've spent money on a mobile game through some sort of in-game purchase? If you said "never" then you aren't alone. You are actually part of a vast majority of players that contribute no revenue to mobile game developers. Swrve today published its first-ever Mobile Games Monetization Report, revealing that just 0.15% of mobile gamers account for 50% of monthly revenue from in-game purchases.

"This means that the vast majority of players deliver no revenue and reiterates the importance of acquiring and retaining users that fall into the "high spender" category," the mobile app marketing company said. Below are some other key findings from the report:

• The vast majority of players do not make any purchases; in fact only 1.5% of players active in the month surveyed made an in-app purchase in that month.
• 50% of revenue is derived from the top 10% of those players who do make purchases. Expressed as a percentage of total players, this group represents a 0.15% of the total players in any given month.
• 49% of all payers make only a single purchase per calendar month, while only 13% of paying players make five or more purchases. A significant amount of spend activity takes place within the first 24 hours the game is played.
  • The average time to first purchase is just under 24 hours. And of those players who go on to make a second purchase, the average time lapse between first and second purchase is a mere 1 hour 40 minutes.
  • 53% of players who make a purchase go on to make a repeat purchase within 14 days, while 47% do not.
  • 13.7% of new players accrue more than four purchases in their first 14 days.
  • Of revenue accrued within the first 14 days of a player's life, over 60% is accrued on the first day of life.
• The average value of an in-app purchase is $5.94.  While purchases between $1 and $5 represent a majority (67%), they contribute only 27% of total revenues.  Purchases of over $50 contribute 9% of all revenues.
  • SKUs over $50 account for 0.7% of all purchases and contribute 9% of total revenue.

"What's interesting is that while many consider that the freemium model to be successful, there is still surprisingly little data relating to exactly how consumers interact with freemium games," said Swrve CEO Hugh Reynolds. "With access of ten's of millions of players, we have aggregated data from across our system to finally lift the lid on what goes on after install – and where the money is made."

Swrve calculated the results of the survey based on "ten's of millions" of people for the month of January 2014. The report was restricted to freemium games and "examines revenue delivered via in-app purchases" that took place across Swrve's network.