Research firm claims 91 percent of mobile game revenue as in-game sales

American gamers spend five times more on iOS games compared to those on Android, according to game-focused research firm Newzoo. The claim is said to be based on a comparison of revenue and download data from the top 200 grossing games, along with survey results from a group of 17,000 gamers.

Based on the collected figures, all iOS devices combined earned 84 percent of the mobile revenues generated when comparing the iTunes App Store and Google Play. Both stores each seem to receive under a tenth of their revenues from the initial game purchase, with 91 percent of revenues consisting of in-game sales. In comparison, Germany and France had figures between 73 and 87 percent for in-game purchases. No advertising revenues were available for analysis.

It was observed that 19 percent of Americans use a regular phone for playing games, while the rest played on smartphones and tablets. In France, this number is 34 percent.

The research firm suggests Apple's iTunes business model, which requires users to pair the download account with a credit card, may be helping boost iOS game revenue. "I can hardly imagine any other company in the world that would be able to get away with this, including Google and Microsoft," said Newzoo CEO Peter Warman.

Aside from the account differences between both platforms, some developers have shied away from Google's mobile platform due to the difficulty in maintaining a consistent experience across the wide range of Android device configurations. Apple's platform, in contrast, only includes a limited number of devices for which the app programming must be optimized for a satisfactory gaming experience.

by MacNN Staff