In-app purchases have grown to account for 52 percent of the revenue of 200 top-grossing iOS games – up from just eight percent a year ago.
The flip to freemium also pushed down the average selling price of iOS’ top 300 games by 28 percent, to $1.44.
But that won’t worry games publishers, because it also pushed the games’ total revenue up 79 percent in the last year, mobile metrics firm Distimo says.
Fifty-six percent of all free iOS app downloads are games, but 76 percent of paid apps.
The top 10 games publishers in each category are responsible for 27 percent of the top 300 free games and 54 percent of the top 300 paid games.
“It is harder for new publishers of paid games to become successful than it is for new publishers of free games,” Distimo says.