A study released on Thursday shows the dominance of “freemium” titles on the iOS platform where revenue is concerned. The study says that in-app purchases made through free apps accounted for 71% of the total iPhone app revenue in February.
The statistics published this week by analysis firm Distimo show that paid applications were responsible for just 24 percent of total iPhone app revenue in February. The remaining 5 percent came from in-app purchases done through paid applications.
To no one’s surprise, the top earner among freemium apps are games, as Clash of Clans took the top spot for February. TurboTax SnapTax was the only non-gaming app to sneak into the top ten, taking tenth place.
Average revenue per device among the top ten apps ranges from What’s the Word’s 37 cents, up to Rage of Bahamut with $7.04 per device.
170 of the top 250 grossing apps are free with in-app purchases available, 53 are paid apps with available in-app purchases, and 27 are paid only.
Looking at in-app purchases broken down by country, Japan spends the most with an average of $3 per title, while the U.S., U.K., and Germany all spend about $1 per download on average.
Feemium apps have been in the news lately as a focus of controversy, as they are frequently used by children to rack up charges on their parents’ App Store account, leading to huge charges being made to the parental units’ credit cards. This has prompted Apple to add a notice highlighting when a free app includes in-app purchases.
