Mobile Game Monetization: A Complete Guide
Mobile game monetization is one of the most important factors to consider when embarking on your journey of mobile game development. It takes a lot of money, time, and effort to build and maintain a game, so you need to figure out how to make money out of this game, not only to cover its costs but to make a profit as well.
There are many ways to do so and it’s all about figuring out a model that works for you. It’s a long process and it will need patience from your end but once it works, IT WORKS! Also, you can visit any mobile game development company to know about Monetization Models and strategies.
What is a Mobile Game Monetization?
Mobile Game Monetization is basically the process of making money out of your mobile games. Years ago, the idea of mobile game monetization was limited to either a free app with ads or a paid app. However, the market has changed drastically since then and new worlds have opened up.
Why Mobile Game Monetization?
Obviously, the end goal of any mobile game developers is to make money from it, and mobile game monetization will help you do just that. Dong Nguyen, the infamous developer of Flappy Bird, spent two to three days developing the game and it ended up earning around $50,000 a day in revenue through its in-game advertising. Other games like Candy Crush Saga, Pokemon Go, and Clash Royale make over $1,000,000 in daily revenue as of July 2017. Also, 90% of Google Play’s and 75% of iOS’s revenue in 2016 came from games through in-game ads and purchases.
Planning For Mobile Game Monetization
A lot of mobile game developers focus on developing their idea into a game and don’t focus on the monetization aspect of it until the end. I don’t need to tell you that this is wrong.
You need to plan your mobile game monetization at the very beginning as you’re laying out the roadmap for your game and it should be a priority.
Keep in mind that many aspects of your game will most likely depend on the mobile game monetization model you go with, and a lot of features and game strategy will be built on it. So you have to include it as part of your planning in your early development stages to make sure that your game and monetization model work well together and complement each other.
Mobile Game Monetization Models
When your game is ready and you’re finally launching it, one of the most crucial decisions you’ll need to take is whether to make it a free or paid game. It’s a trade-off that you need to study carefully.
Paid apps might help you make short-term revenue but free apps might help you attract more users and make more money long-term through in-game ads and purchases. If you already planned your mobile game monetization model beforehand as previously discussed and you’ve already built your game around that, then this shouldn’t be as difficult.
In Conclusion
One last piece of advice: Mobile game monetization is a huge gold mine but you don’t want to overdo it. Your aim might be to maximize your revenue, but pushing way too many ads and turning everything in your game into in-app purchases would have an inverse effect. Users will end up turned off by the game and they will uninstall it in no time.
So make sure to balance it out and keep user retention in mind, try out different strategies, measure, optimize, and repeat.
