You may have a preconceived notion of the kinds of people who spend a lot of money on mobile, but the reality may surprise you.
Nearly 5 percent of U.S. mobile gamers spend more than $25 every month on their smartphone gaming apps, according to intelligence firm Newzoo. Worldwide, 49 million people fit into that “big spenders” category (although the amount it takes to reach that status varies from region to region). But they aren’t pouring all of their cash into Candy Crush Saga. Instead, Newzoo points out that these kinds of gamers tend to spend a ton on all kinds of entertainment — and that includes consoles games.
Publisher Bethesda is one company that has found that this is probably true. Its Fallout Shelter, a mobile colony-management adaptation of its megapopular Fallout role-playing franchise, has bounced around the top 50 list of highest-grossing iPhone apps since its launch earlier this year, according to data-tracking outfit App Annie. That means, according to Think Gaming, that the game makes around $33,000 each day. Back when it was first on iOS and Android, Fallout Shelter was making around $1 million every day, according to some estimates.
That level of spending jives with what Newzoo has found, and it could explain one of the reasons publisher Activision just spent $5.9 billion on Candy Crush Saga maker King. The top spenders on mobile are often the people who love, play, and buy traditional console games.
“Despite many misconceptions, big spenders on mobile are the core gamer demographic we see on other traditional platforms,” Newzoo marketing boss Emma McDonald wrote in a blog post. “Globally, 67 percent of mobile big spenders are male with the majority [between ages 21 and 35]. More interestingly, they spend big cross-screen, with 71 percent of them also spending big on console and 69 percent also spending big on PC.”
And you just don’t see that level of spending with other mobile gamers. Only 11 percent of this wider group spends big on console gaming and only 8 percent spend significant amounts on PC. So it turns out that the people most likely to convert into paying customers for mobile developers are, likely, the same people turning Fallout 4 into an instant smashing success.
That explains the success of Fallout Shelter, and it could turn into a strategy that Activision and other companies will adopt in the future.