While many businesses took a beating when the pandemic hit, the mobile gaming industry was among the ones who made bank. With people forced to stay home, they searched for different activities to keep their minds off of the ongoing health crisis, and mobile games became one of their go-to’s. It has become a versatile and widely available form of entertainment. A 2020 digest found that games posted a 50% growth because of COVID-19. A 35% and 38% year-over-year growth was posted by the App Store and Google Play, respectively. As such, it has allowed many individuals to become more aware of different genres of gaming, including idle games.
Even before the pandemic, idle games have already been booming. The pandemic brought it even closer to the consciousness of many casual players. For newcomers in the industry, it begets the question—can you monetize idle games?
The Answer
Monetizing idle games is possible. In fact, it’s highly encouraged. If you think that hyper-casual games do better with monetization, then you haven’t seen the potential of idle games yet. Comparing the two game genres, monetizing idle games can bring your more revenue based on the following data:
Higher Stickiness
Idle game players have a stickiness of 18% compared to hyper-casual titles generating 10.5%. This means that idle games have a higher ability to retain players over a month’s time. The higher the retention rate, the more opportunities for monetization.
More Daily Sessions
Idle gamers log more sessions per day marking at least five to six sessions that last longer than hyper-casual players. This can show that the market is steadily growing. In fact, idle games have an average revenue per daily active user (ARPDAU) that is nine times more than hyper-casual titles.
Data shows that the audience of idle games is much more engaged. When it comes to monetization, this level of engagement spells a big difference.
How Do You Monetize Idle Games?
If you plan to jumpstart your revenue stream using idle games, here are some useful strategies:
Rewarded Videos
Rewarded videos are great revenue streams for developers. With it, advertisers can show a 30-second ad, allowing developers to earn money. Users, on the other hand, will have to give up the same amount of time in exchange of a reward, which can either be saving more time to achieve their in-game goals or increase their soft currencies.
It can be tricky to apply, though. There must be a careful balance of advertising implementation. Too many ads can significantly downgrade user experience and affect retention rate.
Offerwall
The offerwall is a rapidly growing method of getting ad units well-suited for idle games. Since the offerwall leverages a player’s motivation to level up in their games, it can attract players who would rather spend time on game progression. Often, this is preferred by advertisers because they have the freedom to “purchase” users in a more cost-effective way since they would only need to pay developers once users complete advertiser events.
In-App Purchase (IAP)
For idle games, monetization should focus on banking on the player’s speed of progression. Remember, most idle game players are highly engaged. This means they are willing to pay for offerings that would allow them to achieve their end goals. In most cases, it would be a better option to focus your direction on offering in-game currencies that they can use to progress faster.
Now that you’re armed with this information, it’s time to think of ways on how you can monetize your idle games. Contact AlgoriX, and our experts will connect with you to give you valuable insights on how you can ramp up your revenues.
