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Report: 90% of Google Play Revenue come from Games, Japan #1 by Revenue.

1

1st Course

Member
And 98% of Game revenue come from freemium (F2P) apps.

Games now generate 90% of Play revenue, and 98% of that revenue comes from freemium apps, according to a new report from mobile analytics company App Annie. Japan continues to lead all countries in pouring cashing into Google’s coffers, App Annie’s data reveals.
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Downloads were up 1.5x over the past year, while revenue jumped 2.5x.
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Japan was the top country for Google Play revenue in Q1 2014, continuing a trend with 2.4x revenue growth compared to the same period last year. But the U.S. jumped ahead of South Korea, with strong 2.6x growth, while Korea cooled a little to 1.9x. Germany and the U.K. were both also fast-growth Android regions, although on smaller bases.
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screen-shot-2014-06-23-at-11-12-22-am.png


screen-shot-2014-06-23-at-11-04-14-am.png


http://venturebeat.com/2014/06/23/g...ng-growing-downloads-up-1-5x-revenue-up-2-5x/
 
S

SatelliteOfLove

Member
...and 98% of that revenue comes from freemium apps, according to a new report from mobile analytics company App Annie.
Click to expand...

...yup. Yup, yup, yup...eh-yup. How's everyone else's day going? Is there any reason for me NOT to be concerned here?
 
A

Atolm

Member
And yet, I still have to buy a game from the Play Store because the library of games is so poor compared to iOS...
 
E

Eusis

Member
SatelliteOfLove said:
...yup. Yup, yup, yup...eh-yup. How's everyone else's day going? Is there any reason for me NOT to be concerned here?
Click to expand...
Hope this is the mother of all bubbles? Though even that can be devastating in and of itself, but at least you can rebuild on the ruins left behind.
 
U

unbias

Member
ethomaz said:
Japan only playing mobiles confirmed :)
Click to expand...

Japan, where closet gaming is the only way...

The west is far more accepting of adults playing games. While people will often play games on their cell phones, and though the DS made major in-roads into the casual market, particularly with women, admitting to playing games still carries a stronger social stigma in Japan than in Europe or North America. As such, many adults willingly give up games, keeping the market much younger overall than elsewhere.

Japanese work habits encourage this trend. Traditional corporate culture allows very little free time for their employees. A worker is expected to stay at work until his boss leaves for the day, putting a limit on family and leisure time. Since the bosses themselves have long since adjusted to such a schedule they stay late, forcing their subordinates to stay late with them and putting a stress on both their social and family life. Younger employees are expected to work long hours. Thirteen-plus hour days are not rare.

So sad.
 
E

Eusis

Member
Yeah, sounds like you need a lot to change there, and it's probably one of the reasons it's enabled to the degree it is and relative to AAA/console games and now even handheld.

Though it still goes to a crazy degree in the USA, I guess it's the combo of the fact it IS also highly appealing to a casual audience and the fact "not giving a fuck" is a two way street as people can just as easly have that mentality about blowing tons of money to get ahead in a game as they would to playing a game as an adult period.

EDIT: Though I suppose you get enough people in the closest eventually the closet can't hold them all and it just comes spilling out, as it were.
 
G

Game Guru

Member
I don't understand how microtransactions in F2P games could make up 88% of Google Play's revenue. Do people just download a F2P game they like and just spend and spend and spend until all their money for games is gone?
 
S

Squishy3

Member
Game Guru said:
I don't understand how microtransactions in F2P games could make up 88% of Google Play's revenue. Do people just download a F2P game they like and just spend and spend and spend until all their money for games is gone?
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There's a very small group of players with a huge expendable income. There was a study that said most freemium revenue comes from .15% of players.
 
Q

Quasar

Member
I'm surprised in a way, as I simply don't view android as much of a gaming platform compared to iOS. But then looking at my account very few apps I use are actually non free ones.

Still surprised though if it includes all of google play (apps, books, magazines, videos, music).
 
G

Game Guru

Member
Squishy3 said:
There's a very small group of players with a huge expendable income. There was a study that said most freemium revenue comes from .15% of players.
Click to expand...

So basically, the 0.15% have so much money to spend that it pays to cater to them exclusively and ignore the 99.85% who aren't as easily parted with their money? That's all kinds of wrong.
 
C

Cipherr

Member
Game Guru said:
So basically, the 0.15% have so much money to spend that it pays to cater to them exclusively and ignore the 99.85% who aren't as easily parted with their money? That's all kinds of wrong.
Click to expand...

Yep, whales outspend the rest of us a million to one. Thats why the F2P horseshit is shoehorned into all these mobile games. It looks stupid to us, but behind the scenes the publishers are laughing their way to the bank while we cry about our once beloved IP's being whored out.
 
F

Fuchsdh

Member
unbias said:
Japan, where closet gaming is the only way...

The west is far more accepting of adults playing games. While people will often play games on their cell phones, and though the DS made major in-roads into the casual market, particularly with women, admitting to playing games still carries a stronger social stigma in Japan than in Europe or North America. As such, many adults willingly give up games, keeping the market much younger overall than elsewhere.

Japanese work habits encourage this trend. Traditional corporate culture allows very little free time for their employees. A worker is expected to stay at work until his boss leaves for the day, putting a limit on family and leisure time. Since the bosses themselves have long since adjusted to such a schedule they stay late, forcing their subordinates to stay late with them and putting a stress on both their social and family life. Younger employees are expected to work long hours. Thirteen-plus hour days are not rare.

So sad.
Click to expand...

That's so surprising to me, I dunno why. I guess we get broadcast this image of Japan as those weird but endearing panty-sniffing guys who are really into games. The part about work habits makes a lot of sense though, and it would explain where quick mobile experiences would thrive compared to dedicated experiences.

Game Guru said:
So basically, the 0.15% have so much money to spend that it pays to cater to them exclusively and ignore the 99.85% who aren't as easily parted with their money? That's all kinds of wrong.
Click to expand...

There's a reason they call them "whales", it's just like real-life gambling. The vast majority of people don't get addicted to gambling, so they plunk down $20 on a weekend and lose it or make a small bit back. But the people you can hook will sink all their money into it, and at that point it's just the laws of gambling: the house will win eventually.

When you view it from the economic model side the issue with these games being "fun" or not becomes pretty obvious: they aren't really designed to be "fun" to the majority of people because the majority of people aren't what you're going to make your money from.

I'd say things like Dota 2 are the exception but even there we've got threads on GAF where people have spend $700 on virtual armor, subsidizing people like me who have bought jackshit. There's definitely an "upside" to F2P for many gamers; it necessarily comes at the expense of a few though.

On the topic of Android, though, I'd kill to see iOS numbers. I imagine that freemium games are *slightly* less prominent, given that iOS users are generally more "valuable" in that they buy a lot more apps and use their devices a lot more. But I'm sure it's still the majority of games these days.
 
O

Otakumegane

Member
Japan's low birth rates and less gaming can both be partially attributed to long work hours.

How you gonna meet people if you work all day? And with the youth base ever so decreasing because of that no wonder Nintendo's having a difficult time.
 
F

fedexpeon

Banned
unbias said:
Japan, where closet gaming is the only way...

The west is far more accepting of adults playing games. While people will often play games on their cell phones, and though the DS made major in-roads into the casual market, particularly with women, admitting to playing games still carries a stronger social stigma in Japan than in Europe or North America. As such, many adults willingly give up games, keeping the market much younger overall than elsewhere.

Japanese work habits encourage this trend. Traditional corporate culture allows very little free time for their employees. A worker is expected to stay at work until his boss leaves for the day, putting a limit on family and leisure time. Since the bosses themselves have long since adjusted to such a schedule they stay late, forcing their subordinates to stay late with them and putting a stress on both their social and family life. Younger employees are expected to work long hours. Thirteen-plus hour days are not rare.

So sad.
Click to expand...

I am crying for Japanese Gamers/workers.
 
Duxxy3

Duxxy3

Member
Couple things I'm seeing...

This shows why consoles are dead in japan. Also, I'm surprised that the united states is that low, considering the size of the country compared to japan. Maybe the states just overwhelmingly prefers apple?
 
F

fedexpeon

Banned
Otakumegane said:
Japan's low birth rates and less gaming can both be partially attributed to long work hours.

How you gonna meet people if you work all day? And with the youth base ever so decreasing because of that no wonder Nintendo's having a difficult time.
Click to expand...


This is why old traditions like arranged marriage and marriage meeting will never die in the East/Asian culture.
My GF is my childhood friend, and the reason we started dating because we both joked that we probably won't be able to get married until our 30s due to our fast pace career...but that is a no-no in our culture to get married in our 30s.
Our relationship works because we both just laugh at how ironic this turn of an event is...pretending to play house at kids then literally playing house at adults.
But yeah, our culture pressures us to do well in school/career that love and marriage is almost a second matter. And marriage to most traditional family is mostly about carrying your family name into the future.
But hey, sometime you will get lucky that love, career, marriage all fall into places.
 
E

Eusis

Member
Cipherr said:
Yep, whales outspend the rest of us a million to one. Thats why the F2P horseshit is shoehorned into all these mobile games. It looks stupid to us, but behind the scenes the publishers are laughing their way to the bank while we cry about our once beloved IP's being whored out.
Click to expand...
It's why it's a bubble that needs to burst, badly. And likely messily.

It may be forced to collapse too depending on who the whales REALLY are, some may be millionaires who literally do not need to give a fuck about how much they're blowing, but there's at least a few people who are blowing way more than they responsibly can.
 
Bitmap Frogs

Bitmap Frogs

Mr. Community
Game Guru said:
So basically, the 0.15% have so much money to spend that it pays to cater to them exclusively and ignore the 99.85% who aren't as easily parted with their money? That's all kinds of wrong.
Click to expand...

The 99.85% remaining are there just the whales have someone to show off to.
 
N

Nightengale

Member
Fuchsdh said:
That's so surprising to me, I dunno why. I guess we get broadcast this image of Japan as those weird but endearing panty-sniffing guys who are really into games. The part about work habits makes a lot of sense though, and it would explain where quick mobile experiences would thrive compared to dedicated experiences.
Click to expand...

This is why popular game franchises in Japan largely target kids/teenage audience. The sweet spot for gamer demographics in Japan hasn't gotten older.

Panty sniffing stuff are nothing but the most hardcore and niche aspects of the Japanese community that gets overblown due to fact that Japan has vending machines for stuff like this.
 
1

1st Course

Member
Eusis said:
It's why it's a bubble that needs to burst, badly. And likely messily.

It may be forced to collapse too depending on who the whales REALLY are, some may be millionaires who literally do not need to give a fuck about how much they're blowing, but there's at least a few people who are blowing way more than they responsibly can.
Click to expand...

F2P is not a bubble. People in China and S.Korea have been doing F2P for like 15+ years now, and to this day the game market there still growing.
 
Q

Quasar

Member
The Japan figure is interesting. I guess its similar on iOS. Interesting for what it means for the future of dedicated devices.
 
S

SatelliteOfLove

Member
Game Guru said:
So basically, the 0.15% have so much money to spend that it pays to cater to them exclusively and ignore the 99.85% who aren't as easily parted with their money? That's all kinds of wrong.
Click to expand...

"We are not their customer" is a damning place to be. We will be ignored. We will be forgotten. We will be expendable.

Fuchsdh said:
That's so surprising to me, I dunno why. I guess we get broadcast this image of Japan as those weird but endearing panty-sniffing guys who are really into games. The part about work habits makes a lot of sense though, and it would explain where quick mobile experiences would thrive compared to dedicated experiences.
Click to expand...

I heard until a decade ago that was almost the opposite. Salarymen on the candy cabs whoopin' up on you at VF. Long lines for many systems and many differing types of games (not just the heaviest hitters). Really mid-line games bringing in 500k sales. Compare this to the rest of the world where it took FOREVER to throw off that post-crash mindset of anyone over 18 to be suspect unless their gaming was on a PC or PC hybrid.
 
C

CadetMahoney

Member
hosannainexcelsis said:
Gambling for money is illegal in Japan.
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Purkake4 said:
Yup, that's why you gamble for prizes that you redeem for money.
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Can someone describe how this works, like, you win a prize you take it where>?

Eusis said:
It may be forced to collapse too depending on who the whales REALLY are, some may be millionaires who literally do not need to give a fuck about how much they're blowing, but there's at least a few people who are blowing way more than they responsibly can.
Click to expand...

The few who are irresponsible with their money appear in many areas like gambling in general anyway.

Also I doubt any real millionaires are going to spend their time twiddling their thumbs on some phone app like some addict. There's so many better ways to spend your money recklessly day in day out for them I guess.
 
small44

small44

Member
So 98% of revenue are from f2p game dosn't this mean people want traditionnal games on consoles that's why i don't think Smartphones are the reasons for the bad home consoles sales
 
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