Last week the Ninth Circuit Court officially cleared the path for game developers to bypass Apple’s payment system—allowing U.S. players to be linked directly from games to external web stores to complete their purchases.
Apple will, not surprisingly, appeal. Most coverage has focused on legal or policy implications, but almost no one is quantifying the financial upside.
Maor Sason, co-founder and CEO ofAppcharge—a direct-to-consumer platform “revolutionizing mobile game monetization” —says he saw this coming. He predicted the ruling was inevitable, but warns the industry is missing the bigger picture. While much of the attention has been on the legal drama, Maor says he’s “laser-focused on what really matters: the money.”
According to Maor, the financial upside of this ruling is massive and wildly under-appreciated. With developers now free to explore new DTC strategies, the mobile games industry could be on the brink of a monetization revolution, he adds.
Appcharge analyzed the revenue of the top 10 grossing IAP titles and estimated there is more than US$1.5 billion on the table. Looking at these top 10 games, he says that publishers can earn an average of $153 million in annual revenue per title simply by switching to external billing systems like …. You guessed it Appcharge … that charge just 4% in fees—compared to Apple’s 30%. For example, publishers like Scopely and Roblox can gain up to $150 million to $200 million annually per title, Maor says,
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