10 Tips for Monetizing with a Mobile Game in 2017

Mobile game monetization in 2017 is framed as an underexploited opportunity: a market projected at $40.6 billion in revenue by year-end was driven by fewer than 1.9% of players, up just 0.4 points from 2014. Drawing on Swrve data covering more than 10 million paying players, the article notes that "whales," at 0.19% of players, generated 48% of revenue. The central thesis is that developers over-focus on this niche and neglect the roughly 98% of players who never spend, and that analytics-driven engagement is the route to converting them.

Ten tips are offered, the first six aimed at converting non-payers. These include fair pricing and bundled offers, with lower entry price points for new users (prices above $10 may accelerate the 75% average 30-day churn); generous rewards so in-game currency never feels prohibitively scarce; frequent content updates, illustrated by Candy Crush's 2,680 levels and Supercell's five Boom Beach updates in 2015; and cultivating "moments of joy" through positive reinforcement. Contextual, well-timed messaging (such as offers after repeated deaths on a level) and a consistent persona or mascot, like Tiffi in Candy Crush, are presented as ways to build emotional connection. Soomla data cited shows 13% of paying users go on to make another purchase, underscoring the value of a low-friction first transaction. Supercell's $2.29 billion 2015 revenue and December 2015 daily revenue for top titles, led by Clash of Clans at roughly $1.2 million, serve as evidence.

The remaining tips focus on analytics: funnel reports to locate drop-off and progression problems, custom segments to identify correlations (while cautioning that correlation is not causation), cohort analysis of retention and spending over time, and systematic testing of hypotheses. The conclusion ties free-to-play revenue to sustained engagement and contextual messaging. Published on the GameRefinery blog by a GameAnalytics marketing director, the piece is partly promotional for GameAnalytics' tools, which it says serve over 40,000 developers.