As it stands, Microsoft is boasting 146,395 apps in its Windows Store, and in a recent post by the company on their blog, it has been found to no one’s surprise that despite the Windows Store not being as populated compared to other app stores, once again in-app purchases rule supreme.It turns out that while there is money to be made from the Windows Store, chances are developers will more likely than not make more money if they were to include in-app purchases in their apps. This is a move typically favored by developers who choose to release apps following the free-to-play model.
According to Microsoft, in-app purchases actually accounted for the main source of revenue in terms of monetizing apps, and as you can see in the graph above, it looks like gaming apps are the ones that attract the most in-app purchases.
As Microsoft has stated on their blog, “In January, in-app purchase was the main revenue source for monetizing games, and drove more than 30% of the revenue in Entertainment, Lifestyle, News and Weather, Photos and Productivity apps. Some categories where in-app purchase is used less frequently, for example Tools, Social and Health Fitness, might benefit from in-app purchase opportunities to potentially increase revenue.”
If anything, Microsoft’s figures seem to corroborate what we have learnt recently, which is that mobile gaming revenue is on the rise. A recent study showed how iOS and Android platforms were growing, but neglected to mention anything about Windows, but it is clear from Microsoft’s recent post that they are following the trend as well.
Of course not everyone favors the free-to-play model. In fact a recent study has found that in-app purchases tend to be used by a handful of gamers, making them “whales” as far as developers are concerned. Either way with figures like this, once again it is making it very difficult for gamers to ignore it, even if they were to dislike it.