October 18, 2016 at 14:21Current trends in ARPU in the world
ARPU ( average revenue per user or average revenue per user ) is perhaps one of the most important indicators for understanding the effectiveness of games and the state of the mobile games market as a whole. This indicator allows you to understand the reason for the success or failure of the game, and is also necessary when introducing the game to a new market.
App Annie analyzed the Top 30 Most Profitable iPhone Mobile Games in Japan, China, USA, South Korea, UK:
Source: App Annie. Monetizing Mobile Gamers.
You can see that Japan is the undisputed leader in terms of average ARPU, ahead of other countries by more than twice.It is hard to understand the specific reason for this phenomenon of the Japanese market for mobile games. However, you need to pay attention to two things:
1. This success is largely due to the popularity of RPG games in the country: twenty-two games out of thirty are RPG games.
2. Users in Japan prefer gacha- mechanics, which certainly can not but affect the level of ARPU.
It is worth noting that the tremendous success of any one category also affected the average level of ARPU in the Chinese market. In China, four of the five most profitable games are MMORPG. It is interesting that all four games are mobile versions of PC games:
Of course, brand recognition and nostalgia played an important role here.
No less interesting is the chart showing the growth dynamics of the average monthly ARPU, which is also provided by App Annie .
Source: App Annie. Monetizing Mobile Gamers.
All five countries have stable growth dynamics. The trend in China cannot but be impressive. Growth more than 15 times in two years . According to App Annie, this take-off is associated with the development of MMORPG games.
Obviously, the overall growth dynamics is unlikely to be associated with the fact that players began to spend more and more money on mobile games and in-game purchases. Since top games (by revenue) are constantly changing, games with low ARPU are giving way to those games whose ARPU is much higher, thereby increasing the average ARPU.
Research resultsApp Annie is confirmed by the fact that when developing and launching the game on a new market, it is worth paying attention to, so to say, national and categorical features of the market and the average ARPU on it.
Of course, ARPU is only one of the important metrics for evaluating the effectiveness of games, and its high average value by market or category cannot guarantee the financial success of a mobile game, as casual games demonstrate good financial results with relatively low ARPUs.
Despite this, the average market ARPU in conjunction with other metrics will help you make a decision when choosing a market for your mobile game and evaluate its effectiveness.
App Annie analyzed the Top 30 Most Profitable iPhone Mobile Games in Japan, China, USA, South Korea, UK:
Source: App Annie. Monetizing Mobile Gamers.
You can see that Japan is the undisputed leader in terms of average ARPU, ahead of other countries by more than twice.It is hard to understand the specific reason for this phenomenon of the Japanese market for mobile games. However, you need to pay attention to two things:
1. This success is largely due to the popularity of RPG games in the country: twenty-two games out of thirty are RPG games.
2. Users in Japan prefer gacha- mechanics, which certainly can not but affect the level of ARPU.
It is worth noting that the tremendous success of any one category also affected the average level of ARPU in the Chinese market. In China, four of the five most profitable games are MMORPG. It is interesting that all four games are mobile versions of PC games:
Of course, brand recognition and nostalgia played an important role here.
No less interesting is the chart showing the growth dynamics of the average monthly ARPU, which is also provided by App Annie .
Source: App Annie. Monetizing Mobile Gamers.
All five countries have stable growth dynamics. The trend in China cannot but be impressive. Growth more than 15 times in two years . According to App Annie, this take-off is associated with the development of MMORPG games.
Obviously, the overall growth dynamics is unlikely to be associated with the fact that players began to spend more and more money on mobile games and in-game purchases. Since top games (by revenue) are constantly changing, games with low ARPU are giving way to those games whose ARPU is much higher, thereby increasing the average ARPU.
Research resultsApp Annie is confirmed by the fact that when developing and launching the game on a new market, it is worth paying attention to, so to say, national and categorical features of the market and the average ARPU on it.
Of course, ARPU is only one of the important metrics for evaluating the effectiveness of games, and its high average value by market or category cannot guarantee the financial success of a mobile game, as casual games demonstrate good financial results with relatively low ARPUs.
Despite this, the average market ARPU in conjunction with other metrics will help you make a decision when choosing a market for your mobile game and evaluate its effectiveness.
