We Analyzed Web Store Adoption Across Top Grossing Mobile Games – Here’s What We Learned

The last couple of years has been quite the ride for us game makers.

Direct-to-consumer (DTC) monetization has been embraced by publishers everywhere, amidst a tide of antitrust regulatory changes which have shifted the market wide open and paved the way for more choices for publishers and users alike.

From a personal perspective, we’ve grown our partnerships considerably, now counting ⅓ of the top grossing mobile games as partners and building the market’s most robust DTC platform.

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But despite our own growth and the general hype surrounding web stores in the mobile games industry, there is little data that gives concrete evidence of this overall trend.

We wanted to change that.

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Our team ran a thorough analysis of the top grossing charts and found that on average, 72% of top-grossing games operate a web store.

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In this article, we’ll take a closer look at web store adoption across top grossing game genres, namely the social casino, action, strategy, and casual categories, and unearth financial data to assess the impact of DTC strategies on games businesses.

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Web Store Adoption Rates: Industry Data

A quick note on our analysis: We used data from Sensor Tower’s August 2024 report to identify top-grossing iOS games in the U.S. We then researched and tracked which of these games have web stores – many were not easy to find, as often publishers only invite a select group of VIP players.

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We had to pull some strings to get the full list together, but we were able to gather enough data to offer an accurate, albeit conservative, view of adoption rates and trends. Now, let’s dive in.

Social Casino Games

Social casino has long been one of the most lucrative gaming categories. It has high spenders who are smartly nurtured and monetized with tactics including loyalty programs, VIP customer management, and in-person events.

100% adoption rate

With the context above in mind, it comes as no surprise that all of the top 20 grossing social casino games have web stores. Some interesting points:

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• These games belong to 10 different publishers, showing web store adoption is spread out across the top publishers and not confined to a handful of outliers.
• Publishers with multiple web stores include Playtika and Product Madness.
• Appcharge is proud to be the preferred partner of many of the games in this list, powering their web stores and helping them scale their DTC strategy.

Understanding the data

Why do we think web store adoption has taken off in this genre? Here’s a few factors:

1. Big spenders: Social casino games have very high ARPU. This means a publisher can still see a meaningful boost to their margins by shifting just 10% of paying users to a web store – making the effort of launching a store worthwhile.
2. Strong foundations: The top social casino games have strong direct-to-consumer foundations already, namely via VIP account management, rewards programs, and social media community management. This makes it easier to promote web stores and encourage high LTV users to do their shopping on them.
3. Culture of innovation: The top social casino publishers are renowned for their sophistication and data-centric approach. They pounced on the web store opportunity early and have had more time to gather data and optimize their strategies across their portfolios.    

What results are social casino games seeing?

While web store data is scarce at the moment, we can look at two public companies for useful guidance: Playtika and Huuuge Games.

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Playtika

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• In their Q2 2024 earnings report, Playtika reported generating DTC revenue of $173.7M, up 1.3% sequentially and 5.1% year over year.
• In their 2023 Annual Report, Playtika reported generating $639.4M in DTC revenue, up 5.4% compared to 2022.
• DTC revenue accounted for 24.9% of Playtika’s total revenue in 2023
• Slotomania and Bingo Blitz – both of which have DTC web stores and feature on the top grossing casino games list – generated approximately 46% of Playtika’s revenues for the year ended December 31, 2023.
• Playtika decreased their cost of revenue by $17.2M in 2023, which includes an approximate $16.8M decrease in platform fees and a greater percentage of revenue generated from their DTC platforms
• Payment processing fees and other related expenses for in-app purchases made through Playtika’s DTC platforms are typically 3-4%, compared to the typical 30% platform fee.

Huuuge Games

• In their latest earnings report, Huuuge reported generating $72M in DTC revenue in Q3 2023
• In H1 2024 DTC revenues accounted for 10.1% of total revenue (up from 4.2% in H1 2023), “exceeding their expectations”
• They added that they are investing further in DTC channels and expect more long-term upside

Casual Games

Casual games are one of the highest grossing categories in the whole industry. Puzzle games – a single subcategory of the casual genre, for example – saw $2.89 billion in consumer spending in Q2 2024, ahead of social casino’s $2.886 billion.

30% adoption rate

On the surface, we might be surprised then that just 6 out of 20 of the top grossing casual games have web stores. These 20 games are a medley of subcategories: puzzle (the Candy Crush series), match-3 (Empires & Puzzles), solitaire/simulation (Solitaire Grand Harvest), Board Game/Simulation (Phase 10: World Tour), and casual casino (Coin Master).

Understanding the data

If casual games as a category generate so much in consumer spending, why aren’t more publishers launching web stores?

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Low ARPU: Casual games have a high number of paying users, with relatively low ARPU and average transactions.  This represents a challenge: to set up and scale a web store, casual studios need to migrate a large number of users from the in-game shop to the web store.

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By contrast, we have partners in the social casino category who saw massive transaction volume on their web store, having migrated just 10% of their top paying players.

In other words, it’s much easier to achieve meaningful ROI on your web store when you have high ARPU. The majority of casual game publishers are therefore on the fence about investing in DTC web stores.

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Impulsive buying behavior: Many IAPs in casual games are impulsive – players run out of moves mid session and want to immediately purchase extra resources in order to continue playing. Speed and frictionless UX are key to these transactions.

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Web stores, by contrast, require users to exit the game, log in, browse items, and make a purchase, which is less appealing to many casual gamers. Despite these challenges, casual game publishers can still win with web stores – we’ve seen some of our casual gaming partners migrate 10% and more of their total revenue to web stores.

Strategy games

In Q2 2024, the strategy genre was 1st place in consumer spending, reaching $4.149 billion – up 12% year-on-year. Let’s see how this correlates to web store adoption.

80% adoption rate

Understanding the data

16 of the top 20 grossing strategy games have web stores. A few interesting points:

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Established games: Many of the games that launched web stores have been around for 5+ years, such as PUBG MOBILE, Rise of Kingdoms, and Game of Thrones: Conquest™.

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High ARPU: Aside from being well established games, they also have high ARPU. PUBG Mobile, for example, had the highest ARPU of all mobile games worldwide in 2022, with other strategy games Pokemon GO and Clash of Clans ranking third and fifth respectively.

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Global adoption: Adoption among strategy games is evenly distributed between western and Asian publishers.

What results are strategy games seeing?

According to Ed Wu, SVP of Pokemon GO, their users have “they’ve taken it up quite a bit”, referring to their web store. This is corroborated by Semrush data, according to which the Pokemon GO web store draws in approximately 2.6 million monthly visitors.

Action games

According to Sensor Tower’s Digital Market Index report, action games were the fastest-growing genre for consumer spend in Q2 2024, up by 50% to $843.6 million and ranking seventh overall. Let’s see whether web store adoption mirrors this growth.

75% adoption rate

Understanding the data

With 15 out of the top 20 action games offering online web stores, this category has a 75% adoption rate. A few interesting points:

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Diverse Game Types: The adoption spans various subcategories, including sandbox, strategy, MOBA, FPS, and RPG. This diversity indicates that the decision to implement web stores is not limited to a particular subgenre but is a strategic choice across different types of action games.

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High ARPU: These games have high ARPU, making web stores an effective monetization channel. PUBG Mobile, Roblox, and Clash of Clans ranked first, second and fifth respectively in the ARPU charts from 2022, while Call of Duty Mobile already passed $3 billion in revenue.

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Competitive and Social Games: Many of these games are multiplayer or competitive, where frequent transactions for cosmetic items, battle passes, or power-ups are common, making web stores and the extra value they provide an attractive option for paying users.

The Road Ahead for DTC in Mobile Games

Web stores are no longer the “next big thing” – they’re already the norm, especially in high-ARPU genres like social casino and strategy games, where a small percentage of players can drive substantial revenue.

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As someone who’s worked closely with top mobile game publishers, I’ve seen firsthand how web stores can transform revenue models and give publishers greater control over their sales channels.

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That said, not every genre is set to adopt web stores at the same pace. Casual games, with their lower ARPU and reliance on impulse-driven IAPs, face unique challenges.

But I’m optimistic that as the complexity of execution and friction in the UX is reduced through solutions like Appcharge, more casual game publishers will see the potential to shift players to DTC sales.

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And the genres that are already widely adopting web stores, including strategy, social casino, and action games, will go from strength to strength as they optimize their DTC strategies and solidify new player habits. The road ahead won’t be the same for every publisher, but for those ready to innovate, web stores offer a path to higher margins and a closer connection to their players. At Appcharge, we’re here to make that transition as seamless as possible.

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