A study by mobile ad firm Mobclix shows that games, while being some of the most popular apps, brings in less ad revenue per user than apps in other categories. The study looked at only free apps with over 500,000 downloads and 75,000 active users, with ‘active’ being defined as using an app three times a week for at least 5 minutes.
In every category, iOS outperformed the competing branch on the Android platform. On the iOS platform, games averaged $4.00 per user, while Android squeaked by with less than half of that with $1.90 per user. In the entertainment category, iOS average $6.70 per user and Android averaged $4.90 per user. Finally in the utility category, which stands as the highest revenue group, iOS came in at $9.50 per user with Android following behind at $7.20 per user.
Mobclix’s data doesn’t take into account other factors like app usage time or conversion ratios for the ads themselves. The study also does not include revenue brought in by sales of virtual goods, which is becoming a large part of mobile game monetization.
[Via Gamasutra]
