Sensor Tower: Apple Arcade could accelerate the decline in revenue of premium games in the App Store
The release of Apple Arcade could negatively affect the revenue of premium games in the App Store. By October 18, it had fallen by 13% on a monthly basis. Last year, over the same period, it decreased by only 4%.
Sensor Tower specialists analyzed the revenue of games in the App Store (excluding the Chinese region). From January to September 30, premium titles earned only 1.8% of all gaming revenue in the store. That’s $337 million. According to the table below, this is the lowest figure since 2014:
Note: the table compares the income of paid games for incomplete 2019 with the income for the full 2018, 2017, and so on. Therefore, by the end of December, the share of premium revenue may still grow.
In September, Apple launched the Arcade subscription service. It features premium games exclusive to iOS devices. Analysts do not exclude that the platform could provoke a drop in demand for premium in the App Store.
But there is a possibility that the decline is quite natural. The table shows that the income of premium titles in the store has been declining in recent years. The number of releases also decreased in it: in 2014, 39.7 thousand premium games were released (this is a quarter of all iOS titles released that year), and in 2019 – only 3.2 thousand (7.3%). Currently, 13% of the games in the App Store are premium.
Apple Arcade
Apple Arcade is a subscription service inside the App Store.
The number of games in it recently reached 100. There are no micropayments or ads in the titles. An Arcade subscription costs $4.99 (199 rubles in Russia), and the first month is free. The service has not started in China.
Also on the topic:
