Mobile analytics and advertising network specialist Flurry has released research which shows that free-to-play revenue has overtaken premium revenue in the App Store.
Flurry's research shows that 65 per cent of revenues from the 100 most-downloaded games in June came from titles using the freemium pricing model, compared to just 39 per cent in January this year.
"Mobile games are following in the footsteps of social games, becoming games as a service that continues to be updated over time," says Flurry general manager of games Jefereson Valadares. "The free-to-play model ensures a lot of users can try out a game for free, greatly expanding the number of potential users. But it comes down to extracting money from just a small fraction of them, selling them on virtual items, currency and goods that enhance the game play."
The report also highlights that only between 0.5 and 0.6 per cent of freemium players will spend any money on in-app purchases, but this still represents a significant revenue. Research by Flurry last year reported that virtual goods generated significantly more revenue than advertising for iOS free-to-play titles.
Meanwhile, industry veteran and Digital Chocolate founder Trip Hawkins went further while speaking to Gamesindustry.biz, saying that free-to-play is a more lucrative model in all sectors of the game industry.
"Well, I don't care what category it is, any segment of the games industry on any platform - if you make it free-to-play with virtual goods it'll be better, financially," he said. "You'll get more people to try it, you'll get more revenue from more customers, in the end."
Source: Flurry / Gamesindustry.biz