Accountants love numbers, and apparently so do app developers who want to maximize in-app purchases. Developers that want to earn even more should target iOS users, as recent studies show that iOS users outspend Android users by two and a half times on a monthly basis. The theory behind the numbers on that particular statistic suggests that iOS users are less price-sensitive and are more able or willing to spend money on technology and apps, according to Business Insider.
It is an open secret in the industry that many mobile app developers count on in-app purchases as a main source of revenue. Some developers advertise apps as “download for free” or “play for free,” but to actually progress in the game, players have to fork out a sizable amount of cash.
Apps like Game of War require players to spend hundreds of dollars at a time to purchase packs that allow them to truly make progress. The “free” game reportedly generated an average $550 per player in 2015 on in-app purchases.
It makes sense, then that the number crunchers of the world slice and dice figures to provide up-to-date statistics on mobile users’ in-app purchase habits. In a recent study conducted by AppsFlyer, 100 million users’ spending habits were analyzed with over $300 million spent on in-app purchases. AppsFlyer took geography, operating system, and app category into account.
In all categories, users that are willing to pay for apps average $9.60 a month per app, which is around 20 times more than the average user at $0.50 per app. Out of all the geographic areas included in the study, Asian users spent the most per app on a monthly basis, but no one outspent North American users overall.
Even though Latin American app users only spent half as much as other markets, they have a number of big spenders with plenty of cash to spend on their games. They are designated as “whales,” a term borrowed from the gambling and casino side of gaming, and spend much more on in-app purchases than any average user.
App developers that count on in-app purchases will undoubtedly use market data generated from studies like this one to target markets and app platforms that will drive the most revenue from users. Critics of in-app purchases and the associated marketing hope regardless of geography or device, developers use transparent and clear advertising to promote “pay to play” apps.
