Free-to-play games increase dominance of Android app store

Google Play IAP revenues rocket 700%

Revenue made from in-app purchases on Google Play has rocketed 700 per cent year-on-year, the internet giant has revealed.

Speaking at a Google I/O Session, as reported by Inside Mobile Apps, Google Play product manager for monetisation Ibrahim Elbouchikhi also said that, as expected, the majority of top grossing apps on Android were free-to-play, excluding Minecraft: Pocket Edition.

“We’re not saying you need to push everything free-to-play, however also recognise the dominant trend toward free-to-play,” he said.

A graph show by Google also revealed the effect of how high user ratings can affect monetisation of an app.

Apps with a two star rating are likely to generate 74x more revenue than a one star-rated app. Jumping to three stars meanwhile saw a 1.8x increase in revenue, while four-to-five star games on averaged generated 2.8x more money than three star-rated titles.

As well as improving in the free-to-play space, a trend that could tempt more developers to expand from iOS development, Elbouchikhi stated Android on tablets was experiencing a 1.7 times higher purchase rate of content on tablet devices compared to smartphones.

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