Trends in Mobile Game Monetization: The Best Strategies for Monetizing Your Game in 2022

The mobile gaming industry has been experiencing a significant growth rate over the last few years, with revenue reaching an unprecedented rate. According to a recent study, nearly a quarter of the apps downloaded from the Android and iOS app stores are games.

Today, game developers have many ways to make money, and they must choose the ones that will keep their players returning and having a good time.

There are many ways to make money from mobile games, but not all of them can be scaled up enough to be successful in the long run.

We have created a list of mobile game monetization trends for 2022:

 In-Game Advertising:

One of the most popular game monetization trends will be in-game advertising. Mobile game advertisements are one of the biggest revenue drivers for game developers. A mobile game creator makes money via mobile adverts that appear in the game, while players may enjoy it for free. Additionally, advertisers are pleased to gain new users and display their ads. Ads must not interrupt a player's game and create a fun experience.

The most popular ad formats that are gaining popularity in 2022 are:

• Rewarded Ads
• Playable Ads

Rewarded Ads:

This ad format is becoming more popular and works well for game revenue. With this approach, game developers could offer their players a reward in exchange for watching an ad. Rewarded ads give users the option to choose between Rewarded Videos and Rewarded Surveys.

Rewarded advertisements are a great way to make money from people who would not pay for mobile games. One of the highest paying and trending formats is Rewarded Videos, where you have to watch a video to get a reward. (e.g. coins, points, diamonds, etc.).

Rewarded Surveys are another cutting-edge and popular monetization model, where users must complete the survey to access a gaming feature or receive a reward. Mobile gamers typically prefer doing surveys because they feel more engaged and have more opportunities to voice their opinions.

 Playable Ads:

Playable ads are engaging advertisements that increase game traffic and let consumers try out a mobile game's essential features for free. Mobile games with playable ads have seen their conversion rates, revenue, and even user retention all go up.

Facebook and Google have also introduced playable ads into their ad network inventory. The benefit of this monetization model is that more "quality" or "relevant" users will download the mobile game.

 In-Game Subscriptions:

This monetization strategy can increase user retention, income, and the quality of the gaming experience. More and more games are adding subscriptions to their games. Players pay regular costs to acquire access to more in-game products, features, and content or to play without advertisements. Some subscriptions can automatically renew, while others are non-renewing.

One sort of subscription which is more popular in 2022 is battle passes. A battle pass is a type of subscription in which, after making a purchase, users have the chance to access new features and prizes. It lasts for a certain amount of time. For example, 15 days or 30 days. Players should try to unlock as many battle pass rewards as they can during this time. Your players will have an edge with battle passes and premium subscriptions.

Here are some examples:

* Call of Duty

* Gardenscapes

Paid Games:

Adding a price tag to the game is the simplest way to monetize mobile gaming. Paid games are making a lot of money in both the Google Play Store and the iOS App Store.

Here are some paid games: Monument Valley, Monopoly, Townscaper, Football Manager 2022 Mobile, Minecraft, etc.

By charging for the game, the developers severely restricted the size of their audience, as the great majority of mobile players never spend even a single penny on games. Paid games are an effective monetization strategy for well-known design studios with a sizable user base eager to play their new games. Small game developers often need to look at other ways to make money and keep their games free to play.

In-Game Purchases:

Real money is used to purchase items in the game. Candy Crush is a real example of this. Extra lives, extra moves, and special add-ons can be purchased in-game. You can't beat the next level without help. To advance to the next level in a game, you need to have something. Consider boosters and additional lives. 

In-game purchases work best if the game itself is fun. If your game isn't good enough, users will sit through some ads to get away from their stressful days, but they won't pay money.

 Updates: 

Some games and applications will offer you the option to purchase an ad-free version (such as Wordscapes) or upgrade to a premium account. This is usually seen as a way to get rid of ads or reduce the amount of time a player has to play.

Choosing the most effective mobile gaming monetization strategy can be challenging.

Many other game monetization trends can be used as secondary revenue generation avenues. For example, many games make recommendation pipelines that recommend specific games to users and charge advertising fees for the recommended games.

Many games also have paywalls, where players can start playing for free, but the game is only available for a certain period of time. Users can pay a fee to continue playing after the free period is over.

When deciding on a monetization strategy, developers must consider how the model will work with their game, how players will respond to it, and how much revenue they can expect to generate through the model. This can be done by segmenting users and testing and researching the competition.

With so many revenue-generating strategies available, it might become confusing for developers to find the right one for their mobile games. They can make the best plan by combining a few of these trends into a hybrid plan.

The most commonly used hybrid monetization strategies include in-app ads, in-app purchases, subscriptions with in-app purchases, and a combination of all three. The best strategies can be used by developers to scale their revenue. 

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