Influence of whales over F2P mobile game revenue on the rise – report

A new study on free-to-play mobile game revenue shows that big spenders, known as whales,” still account for the majority of in-app sales. In fact, they’re taking up more of the pie than ever before.

Gamasutra points to new research by mobile app analytics platform Swrve which shows the top 10 per cent of players who spend mony on in-app purchases accounted for 64 per cent of all measured free-to-play game revenue for the month of January. That’s a 14 per cent increase from the same period last year.

The report also suggests that more players seem willing to spend money in greater quantities on in-app purchases. 2.3 per cent of F2P mobile game players spent real money on IAP during the period. That’s generally low, of course, but it’s an increase over the 1.5 per cent Swrve reported spent money during January 2014.

This data indicates that while whales make up well under 1 per cent of total F2P mobile game players, they account for nearly two-thirds of all revenue in the market.

Swrve’s data is based on data gathered from more than 20m individuals that play games tied to the company’s analytics platform.