Free vs Paid Mobile Games

Love them or hate them mobile games are huge these days. But how do they make money? What is the preferred method of each company? I ll analyze the categories and then express my opinion on the games i prefer to buy.

Free Games

There aren't that many games being totally free. Meaning no ads and no in-app purchases. Most of them are from indie developers that want to showcase their work or open source projects.

Paid Games

Mainly more established games, this category have many well known games or games with such good showcase video that you can judge if you want the game or not just from this fact alone. Prices usually ranges from 1$ to 8$.

Games with In-App Purchases

So this is the most complicated category.

1. There are games with ads which you can pay to remove. Usually up to 5$.
2. There are games without ads but you pay to unlock the full game. Same price range as paid games.
3. There are combinations of the two above.
4. There are games which you can pay to buy in-game items to progress faster. Prices ranges from 1$ to 99$ sometimes even more.

My preference

I have bought games from all categories. Here are some of the games my library has.

Some of my paid games. There are a lot of sales so you can wait until the price is about what you think this game deserve.

• (+) Lot of sales for games after a while
• (+) Full game no ads
• (-) Cant try the game first (you can if you want to refund soon)
• (-) Some games may be to expensive for their length

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Some of my in-app gem type purchases. Mostly i bought those to support the devs cause i have played them for a lot of time and less to progress faster.

• (+) You can pay as low or as high as you want
• (-) Most of the items you get are consumables and you will eventually run out

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And finally my current favorite type of paid games. They give you a taste or something more and either you have to pay to unlock the rest of the game or you pay to make the game more "complete" (remove ads + unlock more from the game). A good example is games from Arnold Rauers. You can enjoy most of the games as is but you has no ads and full access to the games if you pay. No 30 sec ads, no wait for more lives etc.

• (+) You can try before you buy
• (+) You can still be unsure if you want the rest of the game depending on the limited demo you played

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Final Thoughts

I know that is my personal preference and many many people never pay for a game even if they have hundred hours on them. But what is you opinion? What type of games and what type of monetization do you prefer in the games you play? Post your thoughts in the comments.

Have a great day! - Chris Myll @coolmyll