A new report from Niko Partners has found in-game purchases accounted for 87.8% for the $89.4 billion gaming market share in Asia, the Middle East and North Africa.
Of the $78.5 billion spent on in-app purchases, premium games accounted for $7.8 billion while $3.1 billion was spent on subscriptions.
The report said that 62.3% of those surveyed bought premium games in the past 12 months across all platforms. A third of respondents used subscription services to access games, which increased to 51% when accounting for broader subscription services such as Prime Gaming.
However, high retail prices discouraged non-spending players from purchasing premium titles with 39.3% of mobile gamers and 44.3% of PC gamers citing it as their biggest issue.
Elsewhere, 30% of mobile gamers said in-game advertising was their most disliked aspect of playing games on the platform.
“Innovative monetisation is important to engage gamers and ensure the long-term success of games,” said Lisa Hanson, CEO and president of Niko Partners.
“Just like with localisation and culturalisation of games for any given market, a game’s success may depend on examining the local monetisation models that lend the most impact for revenue.”
Sign up for the GI Daily here to get the biggest news straight to your inbox
