I’m not a huge gamer. As a writer, I spend most my time either reading for fun or critiquing other writers’ works in progress, so I haven’t paid much to the micro aggressions against the monthly budget that are in-game purchases. Thanks to my husband, however, we are a gaming household. I even set up a Twitch channel for a while. If I ever win the Powerball, I’ll pick streaming back up.
For now, most of my gaming constitutes watching my husband play Final Fantasy in order to brainstorm worldbuilding ideas for the high fantasy septology I plan to write. I use to play Candy Crush and Frozen Free Fall on my phone, but I ended up removing all games from my phone to help with productivity. I already spend far too much time mindlessly scrolling through Facebook looking for pet pictures and vacation ideas to add to my never-ending travel bucket list.
Since I’m out of the loop of mobile gaming and MMO video gaming, the stats around in-game purchases surprised me. Enough so that I wanted to write about them. While they can be a small to nonexistent part of a budget, such as in our household, it turns out that 48% of in-app purchases for mobile games come from 0.19% of the users. For those 0.2%, that spending could add up to a lot and be a tension on their monthly budget.
In-game purchases are a classic example of death by a thousand cuts. While this method can work in your favor when cutting expenses (such as doing a subscription audit), it can also work against you when you are charging a $1 here and another $1 there everyday in apps.
By the Numbers
To add to the stats above, the top five types of MMO games for in-game purchases are:
- RPG
- Shooter
- Battle Royale
- Open World
- Action
Interestingly, sports are sixth at only about 4%, even though their players report they spend the most by market share.
Here are the top ten games that gamers spend additional money on via in-game purchases:
- World of Warcraft
- Call of Duty*
- Fortnite
- Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds*
- Grand Theft Auto*
- Final Fantasy*
- Guild Wars
- The Elder Scrolls*
- League of Legends
- Minecraft
As the graphic indicates, in-game purchases aren’t just for PlayStation and Xbox players. The mobile market is 150% of the traditional console/PC gaming market. The top ten grossing mobile games in 2022 were:
- Candy Crush Saga*
- Roblox
- Coin Master
- Royal Match
- Pokémon Go*
- Evony
- Clash of Clans
- Homescapes
- Bingo Blitz – BINGO Games
- Jackpot Party – Casino Slots
Gaming Intentionally
As always, we don’t believe in black and white logic here at the Budget Brigade. I don’t think video games and/or video game companies are inherently evil. Nor do I think video games are a waste of time and money. That would make me a huge hypocrite. I put a * in the lists above of all the games we’ve played.
Just make sure when you’re setting your entertainment budget, you understand where your gaming money is going. Of all the games above, we have spent $0 in in-game purchases. That isn’t to say we don’t purchase expansions for other games. We have so many different expansions for Hearts of Iron, City Skylines, and Stellaris that I’ve lost count. But we prioritize these purchases and are intentional about each one. (Though I’ll confess, the semi-annual Steam sales definitely stress tests our budget in those months.)
My husband thinks part of the reason for the surge seen within in-app purchases is the inherent gambling nature of a lot of these purchases. Coin Master, Bingo Blitz, and Jackpot Party are in the top ten of in-game purchases, and all have some kind of gambling association linked to them. These games aren’t evil because of it, just like casinos aren’t evil. There is an entertainment value to slots and other games of chance. But the house always wins, in Vegas and in mobile gaming. When you set your entertainment budget for the month, stick to it. And prioritize your spending within that budget to align with the purchases that bring you the most joy and entertainment value.
Have you ever made an in-app or in-game purchase? Which game is your guilty pleasure? For years, I bought every rehashed expansion for each new iteration of The Sims and could spend all weekend running my Sims’ lives. Thanks to the most recent Steam game, I am currently reliving my childhood playing King’s Quest VI.