Amidst these unprecedented times where the coronavirus pandemic has closed the doors for masses for outside entertainment sources, people are taking into account many considerations as the alternative for fun activities at home. Playing games like coin master spins, pirate kings, and many others is one of the finest activities these days.
There are a lot of options though; streaming a thriller on Netflix to skid through the day, listening to favorite music or try a new taste, adopting a new hobby like reading books, learning a new skill, and so on & so forth. People are trying everything in their spirit & energy to skip the horrors the pandemic has hailed upon. But for many reasons, they may still be left alone trying on all these & end up in boredom. So, what is left to try? You can insert a gaming youtube thumbnail to get traffic in your game using a gaming youtube maker! And lots of you would already be exerting it into your locked-down routine to have some bits of entertainment and for all the good reasons.
Gaming is an absorbing activity that not only engages you in the world created in the game but also brings you thousands of players around the world to meet & engage in multiplayer battlezones. Gaming knows no limit. You can battle monsters, play cards, wage wars, race cars, knockdown aliens, build a dream city, rule the world, time travel to ancient times, head on to a secret mission & so many other things!
But in between enjoying the games to the fullest, you must have wondered, “How these guys earn? How games make money? And how much they make?”.
If you have these questions on your mind, be ready to find some coolest answers here! Let’s jump onto the methods the game developer companies use to make money.
How Mobile Games do Business: Methods to Earn Money Via Games
Mobile gaming is a very profitable business in the world at the moment. With the popularity of smartphones & increased capability, the consumer market for game developers has jumped to billions. As of 2018, there are 2.3 billion users of Android around the globe which is very significant given the flexibility Android provides to the developers. That’s the reason for the growing number of the android application that has surpassed iOS apps, numbering at having 2.7 million application on Google Play Store only. While iOS stands at 1.87 million.
With the bulk of users on both Android & iOS platforms, game developer companies have accurately targeted the market & made the most of it which is resultant from the survey conducted in 2017 when 80% of all app revenue was generated from gaming apps for both the Apple & Google Play Store. The global gaming market surpassed $115 billion in 2018 & since then it’s breaking its own records.
Coming to the methods of earning money with mobile games, there are lots of. We’ll try to explain each with short details.
Free to play games
It’s also known for its abbreviation as F2P or FTP. As can be reflected from the name, FTP games can be easily downloaded from the Playstore without spending any single penny but as with the upgrades, they require some payment from the user in order to continue the process in the game.
Advertising
This method is one you’ll be well aware of. Advertising is the most common & lucrative method for game developer companies. It’s also best for monetization policy. If you want to see an instance, try playing games produced by Voodoo. They are simple puzzle games & contains ads after the end of each level. There are different types of ads as well:
Display ads
This appears somewhere at the bottom or top of the screen of the game. They can be static ads, dynamic ads, banner ads, video ads, or pop-up ads.
Incentivized ads
These ads always contain a bonus or an in-game incentive. If you are stuck anywhere where you need some boost, energy, or increase in currency, or even if you are playing a puzzle game like Brain Games & you need a hint, these ads that can be a video or anything, can give you the specified item after watching that for 30 seconds, more or less.
Interstitial ads
Interstitial ads are often shown when a player has reached halfway of the level. These ads occur on the progress to the next level & do not disturb the gameplay.
Microtransactions
Microtransactions is another way the game developer companies generate revenue. These microtransactions are the in-app purchases that some games offer in order to boost up the progress of a player. These microtransactions can be quite useful in order to be a powerful player as they offer you to spend money to buy special cosmetic skins, bonuses, new levels, exclusive gears, & sometimes in-game currency. This method is used in both F2P games & Paid games. Microtransactions or in-app purchases are a great commodity to have in a game. You can myriad of bonuses in contemplation of beating the nuts out of other players with microtransactions. A great example of that would be the skins, avatars, outfits & moves offered by the most popular game created by Chinese game developers, Tencent games’ PUBG Mobile. These items are extremely popular among PUBG players. As of 2020, it was surveyed that the player spending on PUBG Mobile is around $226 million.
Paid Mobile Games
While the top 8 grossing mobile games in 2018 were all free-to-play games, paid mobile games is also a gainful source of revenue for game developing outlets. Paid mobile games allow users to buy a game via a one-time payment method & download it to play for no in-app purchases for the rest of their life. Paid mobile games become downloadable only after being purchased. The Google Play Store or iOS’s Apple Store doesn’t allow users to play or even download games without buying. Some instances on Google Play Store would be Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Minecraft, Bloons TD 6, etc.
Subscription
The subscription method adopted by game developer companies is akin to that of streaming maestros like Netflix & Amazon Prime. It requires players to subscribe to the game for a specific fee over a particular period of time, usually a month. Though it’s rarely used by most developing outlets at the moment, Al Campa of App Annie has predicted that people will soon start to see subscriptions making their way into gaming. Currently, it is being used by Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & many others on Google Play Store.
Conclusion
With mobile gaming consistently outmuscling console & PC gaming on user & economical grounds, many game developer companies, new & old, are rushing towards it. It is expected that in the future more investment would be laid in mobile gaming which is considered to be a cash cow & can generate colossal revenue if the right strings are pulled.
