According to a study by Flurry, free-to-play games generated 65 percent of the revenue generated by games in the App Store in June 2011. In January 2011, F2P games had only a 39 percent share of the revenue.
“When you make your game free and add in-app purchases, two powerful things can happen: first, more people will likely try your game since you’ve made the ante zero,” explains Flurry’s Jeferson Valadares. “And second, you will likely take more total money, since different players can now spend different amounts depending on their engagement and preferences. It’s not unheard of for individual players to spend into the tens of thousands in a game they like.”
Data suggests that the amount of paying players for a game varies from 1/2 percent to 6 percent. “Although this means that more than 90 percent of players will not spend a single penny,” noted Valadares. “It also means that players who love your game spend much more than the $0.99 you were considering charging for the app.”
Source: blog.flurry.com
