Why Web Stores Offer a Better Deal For Your Mobile Game VIPs
We’ve already spoken about the $30 billion+ opportunity in the mobile games market. According to data.ai’s State of Mobile report, the sector generated $110 billion from player spending on in-app purchases in 2022. But due to the hefty 30% revenue share taken by Apple and Google, publishers saw ‘just’ $77 billion of that—the rest was scooped up by the platform holders.
Much of this revenue, of course, comes from the minority of players, your VIPs. But the App Store and Google Play make engaging with these players and providing them with deals more challenging than it should be—and they, of course, take that 30% fee.
That’s where an off-app payment system, or web store, can come in. Not only can this provide a much fairer deal for publishers—Appcharge, for example, takes just a 5% fee for powering transactions—but one of the biggest opportunities they offer is catering to those VIPs.
Community-Building
VIP users are the most engaged and highest spending players in your game. Ensuring a good experience, where they feel they are getting the appropriate rewards and perks for their investments, not only helps your title be successful, but can act as a reflection to how the wider player base feels about your game.
One of the best ways to do this (aside from in-game options such as clans, leaderboards, competitions, and various multiplayer modes) is to build your community outside of the app and onto platforms such as Discord, social media and even a dedicated website. These platforms let you engage with your players—and your VIPs—in ways that the App Store and Google Play don’t let you.
Through Discord, you can promote exclusive web store bundles, promote events with special giveaways available only out of the game, communicate directly with your players in a two-way conversation, and obtain direct feedback on specific features, updates, and what your players want to see most in the game. On Twitch, not only can the streaming platform help promote your title, it’s another way to share content and also promote exclusive web store offers. The same goes for social media—you’re meeting players where they are, while also having a platform to offer them the best deals, which you can’t do on closed mobile ecosystems.
It’s in these communities that you can build closer relationships with your highest spending players. Depending on your strategy, you could potentially communicate with players out of the game and through chatbots on Facebook, or via email marketing integration, to promote the latest and best deals. You could even offer limited-time discounts, bundles or even early access to new features, all through a web store that offers a better deal. By creating a direct-to-player monetization strategy, developers can increase their revenue and build a loyal fanbase outside of the restrictive app stores, rather than having to go through them.
Personalized Offers
A web store can work in tandem with your community strategy, particularly when it comes to VIPs. For starters, you have total control on the deals you can provide players and which price points to choose—and you are not at the mercy of any potential future policy changes by Apple or Google. This means you can provide better offers for players, who can get more bang for their buck when publishers don’t have to account for the 30% revenue share with platform holders.
For VIPs, you can offer a special loyalty program with better rates than in the app. What’s more, by powering your direct-to-consumer sales on Appcharge, you can segment your most important users and surface deals most appropriate to them. These deals can be personalized even to specific individuals, based on how they engage with the game and their current progress, and this entire process can be automated.
To attract players to actually engage with your web store, however, is no simple task. Many purchases in-game are made emotionally, an experience that is extremely challenging to replicate out of the app. That’s why building a community is important, and engaging with your top players to showcase the better deals on offer from your own store. The experience can also be improved by ‘gamifying’ the web store, making it look and feel similar to what players see in-game.
With Appcharge, developers can automate user segmentation, enabling them to create custom rules based on player behaviour, game progression, spending levels and habits, the country they live in, and preferred payment methods.
This personalization means developers can create and surface the most relevant offers to players, helping to increase conversion, and therefore revenue. And this all happens in an environment where publishers can take 95% of the revenue, not just 70%.
A Fairer Deal
Web stores have the potential to be much more than a way to obtain a better revenue share than mobile platform holders currently provide. They can play a key role in keeping VIPs happy and engaged with your game, ensuring they get the best and most relevant deals for their money, a process made easier by having a web store you control and generate higher returns from. By building communities out-of-app, publishers are able to go direct to players, build better relationships, and provide the most value.
