Appcharge Named Best Payment Service Provider at PocketGamer.biz Mobile Game Awards
We’re thrilled to announce that Appcharge has been voted the Best Payment Service Provider at the PocketGamer.biz Mobile Game Awards, held during gamescom 2024!
This award is a huge honor for us, and it speaks to the hard work and innovation our team has poured into scaling our payment services for game publishers.
We’ve been on a mission to help the world’s leading mobile game publishers sell directly to players, and this recognition shows that we’re on the right track — but we’re just getting started.
We want to extend a massive thank you to our partners, clients, and everyone who voted for us. Your trust and support drive us to continue innovating and delivering top-notch payment solutions.
Stay tuned for more exciting developments on the horizon!
4 Creative Strategies For Driving Players to Your Web Store, Inspired by Pokemon GO, Merge Dragons, Candy Crush & Subway Surfers
Building a beautiful and profitable web store is hard enough, but many publishers find that the real challenge begins after their store is built and published.
That’s because they need to create a new behavior among their users: buying in a web store instead of the in-game store.
If you manage to create this new habit, web stores will be a powerful afterburner to your product revenue.
But changing user behavior is not easy in this context. Here’s why:
It’s quicker for players to buy items in the in-game store vs. an external web store
You can’t promote web stores in your game at all in the US
In the EU you can mention your external D2C web store in-game, but can’t link directly to it without Apple taking a cut.
So, how do you get players to your web store without getting a slap on the wrist by platforms?
In this article, we will look at 4 creative strategies – covering both best-practices and out-of-the-box tactics. Let’s dive in!
1. Build a social media community
For your out-of-app monetization to have a solid foundation for sustainable growth, you must build a community to support it.
This could be on Facebook, TikTok, Twitch, Discord, Reddit, or wherever else your players hang out. Some useful references:
Once you have an engaged community, weave promotions for your web store into your posting schedule. Promote time-limited offers and special bundles, along with cool features available in your store, such as gifts-for-friends and loyalty programs.
2. Create an email newsletter
It might sound left-field, but an email newsletter can be a great way to forge deeper connections with your community. You could do a monthly newsletter that features content about your game.
For instance:
Facts about your characters
Interviews with your game designers
Audience-sourced game art
News roundups
Upcoming in-game events
Gram Games are a good example. Since October, 2023, they’ve sent a weekly or biweekly newsletter for their Merge Dragons game, filled with intriguing game facts. These newsletters don’t directly promote their web store, but they consistently draw players to their website where their store is found.
If you manage to create a newsletter your players enjoy reading, you’ll be well-positioned to naturally weave in web store offers and drive traffic to your website.
To ensure as many visitors convert into buyers, focus on optimizing your store with appealing game art, exclusive offers, and gamification mechanics.
3. Run real-life events
If you’re a publisher with a large, dedicated playerbase, running real life events which brings together your community can be a highly effective way to onboard them onto your web store.
Niantic serves as your north star: they drew in 194,000 people to its three real life Pokemon Go events in 2023, each on a different continent.
The augmented reality game is naturally suited to real life gamified events; the results are testament to this and the strength of their player engagement. From the New York City event alone:
35 million Pokémon were caught during the Pokémon GO Fest
Attendees walked an average of 18.6 miles while capturing Pokémon and making connections with other Trainers
Not only can Niantic promote their web store using QR codes and other marketing tools during their live events, but they can increase web store interaction before the event too.
As stated on their website:
“Trainers who purchase their ticket from the Pokémon GO Web Store will receive an exclusive GO Fest 2024 T-shirt avatar item in an exclusive color. Like the GO Fest event badge, the T-shirt will arrive closer to the date of the Pokémon GO Fest event.”
Creating and executing a real life event is no easy task – consider pairing it with popular trade shows like Gamescom, where publishers run an array of fan-focused activities. You can create a separate event for your VIP players who are already in town for the tradeshow, for example.
4. Leverage brand collaborations
With a growing number of businesses looking at games as a channel for brand marketing campaigns, publishers should capitalize on this opportunity to turn their web stores into hubs of exciting and exclusive branded content.
Here’s how that might look:
– Integrate brand collaboration into your game
– Leverage the excitement to offer one-off items in your store themed around the brand
– To maximize conversions, offer exclusive deals and update store game art
– Make sure the brand actively promotes your web store as part of the collaboration terms
To make this concept more concrete, here are a few collaboration references which you could apply the above blueprint to:
Candy Crush Saga x Barbie Movie: they collaborated on an in-game event which introduced Barbie-themed quests.
Fornite x LEGO: over 1,200 Fortnite outfits received an additional LEGO Style, playable in the game’s new LEGO®-themed experiences
Clash of Clans/Royale x Chess.com: Clash of Clans and Clash Royale launched chess-themed seasons, including chess Hero Skins and exclusive cosmetics. In addition, Chess.com featured Clash-inspired chess pieces and the chance to play chess with Clash characters.
Final takeaways
If we look through the above strategies, we can see a theme. Be it a newsletter, social media channel, real life event, or brand collaboration, these strategies all serve to create and nurture a vibrant out-of-app ecosystem around a game that naturally complements web stores.
Until publishers can link directly to web stores from inside their games without losing revenue or getting penalized (don’t hold your breath), leveraging out-of-app channels will continue to be key to driving traffic to your web store.
And if you’re looking for the best converting web store builder in the market, head to appcharge.com and book a free demo.
How to Choose a Web Store Platform for Your Mobile Game
The bandwagon is well in motion: nearly all top mobile game publishers developed a web store in 2023, and many more will follow suit in 2024.
Some publishers chose to build their web store in-house from scratch, but the vast majority of mobile publishers chose to use an external, white-label platform to build and manage their web store.
However, with several white-label web store platforms to choose from, it can be challenging to identify the ideal option for your game.
It’s a crucial decision – migrating to a different web store platform later on will likely be a major headache. That’s why we’ve written this article – to help you understand the key considerations when choosing a white-label web store platform. Let’s get started.
What is a mobile game web store?
A web store is a direct-to-consumer store in which developers and publishers sell digital items and bundles to their players. Web stores are not a replacement for the in-game stores we’re all accustomed to; rather, they’re an additional game monetization channel.
Web stores exist outside of the Apple or Google ecosystem, which means developers bypass the traditional 30% fees in every transaction.
So what do developers pay, we hear you ask? That depends.
Larger publishers may choose to build their own web store in-house from scratch and act as their own Merchant of Record, which would see them earn most of the royalties from their sales (minus payment fees). This approach requires significant investment in both time and money, which you can read more about here.
Most publishers, even larger ones, however, will leverage white-label web store platforms and existing Merchant of Records. Such platforms often take care of all the tech and payment infrastructure, and in return take a share of the sales royalties – anything from 5 to 15 percent, depending on the company.
Can you build your own web store tech?
Yes, you can build your web store technology internally. To do this, generally speaking, you’d need:
A team of specialist engineers and product designers
A lengthy runway – it can take a minimum of 4 months to globally launch a basic web store from scratch
A payments team (or external vendor) to handle Merchant of Record functions, such as refunds, chargebacks, invoicing, and fraud
A commitment to investing in frequent development work to optimize and update your web store, so it’s as dynamic as your game
These are just the base components – there are a whole host of other requirements that come with building your own web store in-house – which gives you an idea of the scale of the task.
That’s why publishers are increasingly turning to white-label platforms for their web store needs. With that in mind, let’s look at your top considerations when it comes to choosing the right platform for your game’s web store.
How to choose the right web store platform for your game
From Appcharge to Xsolla, there are various companies offering plug and play web store platforms for mobile game developers. Choosing the right platform is an important decision.
Here are 3 key considerations:
1. Make sure they have reasonable, transparent fees
In return for getting an out-of-the-box white label web store, you need to share some of your margins with the web store provider to ensure mutual incentive. If you choose the right vendor, this fee is well worth the money and time you save on assembling a team of engineers to build a store from scratch.
However, some white label web store providers take up to 15% per transaction, while others have many types of hidden fees that lead to lower margins than expected.
While these fees are still significantly lower than Apple’s commission, it’s important to choose a white label web store that is transparent in its pricing terms to ensure you are building for future scale.
Make sure you get a detailed breakdown of the fees before making any decisions.
2. Ensure they’re reliable and customer-oriented
You don’t fully own your web store when you’re using a third party solution. You also don’t control the operations behind it.
Should the vendor get hacked, close down, or go through any other kind of mismanagement – you could be at risk of experiencing interruption to your web store and the revenue it generates.
This can be avoided by working with a boutique web store provider run by people you trust. Do your research about their security practices, read case studies, and talk to the platform’s team to ensure you are as confident as possible about their reliability, security, and support.
3. Check they’re gaming-first
As a game publisher, you ideally want the team behind your web store platform to come from gaming backgrounds. Better yet if those individuals have experience working in LiveOps. That way, you know you’re working with people who truly “get” your needs as a developer, the needs of your players, and the ins and outs of the games industry.
Taking this a step further, you want to be working with experts who know how to push you forward and suggest revenue-boosting strategies.
Without this, you risk being on different wavelengths with your point of contact and missing out on growth opportunities in your web store.
To avoid this, make sure you choose a web store platform that has been built by games industry experts. The Appcharge team, for example, includes leaders with backgrounds at top mobile game developers like Moon Active, Rovio, Tilting Point and more.
Choosing a web store for your mobile game: Final takeaways
In 2024, the rise of web stores is not just a paradigm shift; it’s a strategic imperative for game developers seeking autonomy and financial resilience.
The choice of the right web store platform becomes a linchpin in this journey, determining not only the trajectory of your game but also the extent of your independence in a rapidly evolving gaming ecosystem.
With several web store platforms on the market offering similar products, looking for differentiating factors that will provide you a competitive edge is important.
Transparency, financial legitimacy and reliability are key areas to dive into during your decision process, but perhaps the most important factor is if the web store platform is made by game industry veterans.
The right web store platform is more than a service provider; it’s a collaborator with a deep understanding of the gaming realm. Opting for a platform crafted by industry experts ensures a synergy of goals, where your success as a developer aligns seamlessly with the strategies and insights provided by the people behind your web store platform.
A Perfect Storm: 5 Industry Trends Fueling the Rise of Web Stores
2023 saw numerous leading mobile game publishers build their own web stores, allowing them to sell directly to players – and bypass the usual 30% fees in the process.
But what’s driving this strategy? Why are web stores emerging as must-have monetization channels now?
Below, we unravel the threads that tie key games industry trends such as extended development timelines, rising user acquisition costs, and the changing face of hyper-casual, to the pivotal role web stores play.
You’ll come away understanding how exactly web stores can fuel sustainable revenue growth for mobile game publishers in 2024 and beyond. Let’s jump in.
1. Extended Development Timelines
Trend: Developing games now takes considerably more time. “Gone are the days of creating a new prototype weekly or even a few each month”, John Wright, VP of Publishing at Kwalee, notes. “Teams are now investing more time in research, ideation, and game development, resulting in fewer opportunities”.
Enter, web stores: With the days of rapid prototyping and frequent game launches seemingly over, studios must focus on really squeezing the lemon from their existing successful titles. Web stores provide a way to both meaningfully increase bottom line profit and retention rates.
With gamification mechanics and exclusive offers that give players more value than they’re able to get anywhere else, web stores serve as a powerful antidote to the financial impact caused by the reduced frequency of new game launches.
2. The evolution of hyper-casual
Trend: Hyper-casual was not just a game genre, it was a business model. One that revolved around aggressive UA, ads, and rapid game prototyping. Hyper-casual games are still around, but the boom has dissipated. Testament to this is the fact that revenue generated by hyper-casual games dropped 10% in 2022 compared to 2021, down to $12.3bn from $13.7bn.
With aggressive UA and a profitable game an increasingly elusive combo in the post IDFA landscape, many studios who focused on hyper-casual in recent years have been forced to deepen their game mechanics, develop more complex and innovative games, and shift away from the ad-centric model.
Enter, web stores: With web stores enabling publishers to sell digital items directly to players, outside Apple’s walled ecosystem, it’s now far more viable to shift away from the ad-based model and operate an IAP-centric game.
The reason is simple: publishers’ margins are higher for every transaction.
Studios can either develop their own web store in-house and pocket all of the revenue (minus payment fees and the high cost of actually developing the store), or use a white-label solution that takes a marginal fee but allows them to quickly build a powerful, customizable web store that still massively lifts their profit.
3. The demand for compelling meta
Trend: The shift away from basic hyper-casual game mechanics, and users’ high expectations for games to operate as live services, has led established games publishers to double down on compelling storylines and meta games.
Enter, web stores: If compelling storylines, deep meta games, and robust live ops are the engines behind established, evergreen games, then web stores are the top up of fuel to help keep everything running.
That’s because web stores have the potential to increase retention: publishers can delight their most engaged players with so much extra value, and use gamification mechanics like daily bonuses, progress bars and loyalty programs to create a fun experience.
In doing so, publishers can create a virtuous cycle of growth of increased profit, higher retention rates, and more engagement in their meta features and liveops.
4. Major Publishers are Focusing on High Revenue Potential Games
Trend: John Wright revealed how Kwalee is testing fewer games now, focusing more on those they believe “can become tier 1 launches generating $5-10 million or more in lifetime revenue”. Similarly, he shared how Kwalee is “prioritizing an understanding of monetization results over marketability”.
Enter, web stores: Studios looking to work with top publishers must prioritize making sustainable, profitable games. Web stores provide one of the most powerful yet simple ways to achieve this.
Customizable designs that feature your game art, a seamless checkout process that supports hundreds of payment methods, localized prices, and a whole host of gamification mechanics make web stores engaging for players and dynamite for mobile game revenue.
And the best part is white label platforms like Appcharge handle all the heavy lifting for you, meaning web stores are not only accessible to the biggest publishers who can afford to build their own store in-house.
5. User Acquisition Costs Are Rising
Trend: The primary challenge many gaming studios are facing is running effective UA at scale while ensuring profitability. Kwalee, for instance, is investing 25 times more in user acquisition per title. This has to be compensated for somehow.
Enter, web stores: As should be clear by now, web stores – when managed smartly – provide significant uplift to profit margins for games selling digital items to players. White label web stores charge anywhere between 5%-15% in fees, in addition to minor payment processing costs – a far cry from Apple’s 30%. With this added cash flow, studios are afforded a lifeline that they can reinvest into their business growth.
Final takeaways
All of these trends create a perfect storm for web stores. Sometimes this industry has seen tech solutions being made for problems that don’t yet exist (*cough* web3 games *cough*).
But web stores have emerged at a time where there is a real need for mobile games to find new revenue streams. Not only did Apple turn the industry on its head by deprecating the IDFA, but their 30% cut from every in-game transaction adds insult to injury.
Thanks to Epic Games, studios can break out of this walled garden and usher in a new era of monetization.
Beyond the App Store: The Future of IAP Monetization
The future of in-app monetization is, well, out-of-app.
With Apple’s deprecation of the IDFA and longstanding refusal to adjust their 30% tax on developers, in addition to an overall drop in game revenue across the board, the mobile gaming landscape has been feeling the strain.
But the industry received a lifeline thanks to Tim Sweeney and Epic Games. As a result of their much publicized legal battle with Apple, it was ruled that app developers can, through communication with users outside of the app only, direct them to their own external web stores to purchase in-game items, bypassing Apple’s 30% commission.
While industry giants have been quietly building out their web stores with in-house resources, the vast majority of studios don’t have the war chest to do the same. And so we launched Appcharge. Our mission? To revolutionize IAP monetization with a direct-to-player monetization platform that gives developers a headstart from the get-go, rather than a handicap.
Keep reading to learn more about the rise of mobile game web stores and how you can use Appcharge to power your direct-to-player monetization strategy.
The growing importance of out-of-app monetization
Looked at solely through the lens of bypassing Apple’s 30% tax, web stores are a no brainer for games. But the need for web stores is made increasingly urgent when you consider three trends that are making monetization of game items all the more crucial in our industry.
The emergence of games-as-a-service model
Gamers have increasingly high expectations of what a game should be; games are expected to constantly evolve, add new features and experiences. On one side of the coin, this puts a strain on the budgets of studios, who need to hire liveops teams.
On the other side of the coin, a natural product of a liveops strategy is greater room for IAP monetization. New battle passes, in-game items, and special offers are hallmarks of liveops strategies – it’s just when you cut 30% off from all transactions, there isn’t much room for error in order for the investment on those liveops salaries to pay dividends.
Webstores represent a major boost to liveops-focused games. Not only do they provide studios with more breathing space and better return on their liveops investment by bypassing Apple’s 30% cut, but they actually facilitate more robust and engaging offers for users. From highly personalized offers to new loyalty programs, webstores serve as the backbone of a profitable and sustainable liveops strategy.
From hypercasual to hybrid casual
The second trend that highlights the growing importance of IAP monetization is hypercasual’s shift to hybrid casual in recent years. Apple’s deprecation of the IDFA essentially killed the hypercasual industry, which relied on hyper-efficient, targeted user acquisition, and quick ad monetization from users with low LTVs.
This model has been jeopardized as a result of Apple’s changes: revenue generated by hypercasual games dropped 10% in 2022 compared to 2021, down to $12.3bn from $13.7bn.
As a result, hypercasual developers are being forced to find ways to add deeper layers to their games, in order to increase user retention and LTV, and add IAP monetization to the previously ad-focused model.
Overall reduction in ad monetization
It’s not just the hypercasual category that’s feeling the heat. Following the IDFA apocalypse, games across the board are spending less aggressively on UA.
Consequently, 2022 saw a reduction in eCPMs compared to the previous year, causing games to earn less money from ads. And it’s unclear if the industry will recover to its pre-IDFA levels of ad monetization in the near future.
In order to survive, games must build out their IAP monetization strategies.
Direct to player: A new era in gaming
A perfect storm
All of these forces, and the Apple-Epic legal case, combined to create a perfect storm for the rise of D2C web stores in mobile gaming.
Industry leaders like Supercell, Niantic, Moon Active, Playtika and Scopely, all of whom monetize heavily from IAPs, already launched web stores for their hit games. Numerous others have followed suit.
The benefits to game developers of D2P web stores are obvious: a significant uplift to their profit from sales of game items. Instead of losing 30% of all revenue to Apple, developers who build their own online stores pocket all of the fee.
Challenges of web stores
However, there are challenges posed by web stores. Firstly, Apple forbids games from advertising their external stores inside their apps – meaning developers need to find alternative ways to inform users. For large, legacy publishers with strong followings on social media, this isn’t such a big issue. For smaller outfits who are still building their brand, it requires some thinking – like partnering with influencers and building a strong community.
It’s also much more convenient for a user to make an IAP within the game, rather than going to an external web store. Because of this, developers will need to find a way to incentivize this change in user behavior. However, given the large boost to their margins afforded by web store transactions, discounts and incentives like loyalty programs can be offered to get the ball rolling and begin changing user habits.
Lastly, using in-house tech to build and maintain a web store, in addition to supporting global payments and compliance, requires time and significant investment. Appcharge’s co-founder actually led the development of Moon Active’s web store and knows first-hand how time consuming and expensive it can be. Giant companies like Moon Active can afford to do this, but most others need a third-party tool that makes it easy to launch a web store.
Enter: Appcharge.
Appcharge: Powering the D2C mobile gaming economy
Appcharge offers a white-label web store platform for mobile game developers. Taking just a 5% cut from purchases, our platform allows for total customization, with developers able to design every aspect of their store, use gamification elements to boost engagement and encourage repeat purchases, set up segmentation to provide the most relevant offers for all users, and seamlessly handle payments and billing.
The best part?
After the initial integration to update the balance in customer accounts, the entire D2P monetization strategy can be managed by live ops and monetization managers – no technical development needed.
Compared to building your own web store, this saves significant resources and allows teams to focus on building out a winning D2P strategy that improves user engagement, strengthens retention, and increases repeat purchases.
The future of IAP monetization is here, and we’re proud to be leading the way.
Unlock Your Game’s True Revenue Potential with Appcharge
Ready to transform your game’s monetization strategy and reap the rewards of out-of-app web stores? Get started with Appcharge today and watch your revenue skyrocket while creating a more engaging and personalized experience for your players.
