58% of all its users have bought virtual goods from inside free-to-play games, significantly more than more traditional titles, according to a study by digital goods monetization firm PlaySpan.
Based on a survey of 2,425 of PlaySpan users who had bought digital goods from publishers within the last year, VGMarket found that 58 percent of users bought goods from within a free-to-play game -- the highest proportion -- while 34 percent of users made in-game purchases in MMOs and 23 percent made purchases from social games.
Traditional online PC, console, and casual games saw much lower digital goods pickup: 12 percent, 9 percent, and 9 percent respectively.
And not only did free-to-play games see the highest purchase penetration among users, they also generated the most money on a per-user basis. The average user's expenditure on publisher-sold free-to-play digital goods over the course of 12 months was $75, compared to $60 for MMOs, and $50 for social network games.
As with the penetration statistics, more traditional gametypes saw lower annual expenditure, but those games of course also derive their primary revenue from up-front purchase cost. Respectively, online PC games, online console games, and casual games saw digital goods spending of $40, $36, and $29.
And as for what people are buying? Spam doesn't lie: People like purchasing in-game currency. Among both publisher-sold digital goods and digital goods sold by external parties, currency was by far the most-wanted commodity.
Among publisher-sold goods, 73 percent of buyers bought currency, 40 percent bought weapons, 32 percent bought wearable items, and 30 percent bought subscription codes. Third-party-sold goods saw similar proportions.
Of those who buy, 24 percent say they do so every day, while 65 percent say they do so at least once a week, which indicates why annual figures are so high despite individual transaction costs traditionally being quite low.
That's quite interesting, and promising for what I keep seeing as the rising trend in online games. Previous studies I've seen have referenced figures of around a 10% buy-in rate or lower, people who only even bought one thing in the game, and I think this was only a year ago.
@Robert: How does spending your money in free-to-play games make one a sucker? Sorry but that's a pretty lame declaration considering the traditional retail format doesn't let you:
A) Spend the amount of money you want
B) Let you spend it on what you want
C) Let you play the game beforehand
I'd say people are much MORE suckered into purchases by just looking at the cover art of a game's box and the two screenshots on the back wouldn't you say?
It's highly misleading to claim that "58% Of Users Buy Goods From Free-To-Play Games" in the title, this study doesn't tell us anything at all about users in general.
"58% Of PlaySpan Users Buying Online Goods Buy From Free-To-Play Games" is accurate, but boring :)
The headline is not merely misleading, it's awful, as it implies 58% of all users of free-to-play have bought digital goods. No, 58% of those *who have bought digital goods* from publishers bought from free-to-play. In percentage of all free-to-play players this could be a very small number.
" No, 58% of those *who have bought digital goods* from publishers "
Actually its even less meaningul then that.
No, 58% of those *who have bought digital goods* from publishers *through playspan* bought from free-to-play.
How many F2P v. non-F2P games use playspan? of those what are their relative representations in the total playspan user population? There is a LOT of information missing here.
In general, this is just another report from the PR Arm of the Department of Meaningless Statistics.
A) Spend the amount of money you want
B) Let you spend it on what you want
C) Let you play the game beforehand
I'd say people are much MORE suckered into purchases by just looking at the cover art of a game's box and the two screenshots on the back wouldn't you say?
It's highly misleading to claim that "58% Of Users Buy Goods From Free-To-Play Games" in the title, this study doesn't tell us anything at all about users in general.
"58% Of PlaySpan Users Buying Online Goods Buy From Free-To-Play Games" is accurate, but boring :)
There's nothing to say for sure, but the percent must be tiny. Conversion rates are generally in the < 10% range.
Actually its even less meaningul then that.
No, 58% of those *who have bought digital goods* from publishers *through playspan* bought from free-to-play.
How many F2P v. non-F2P games use playspan? of those what are their relative representations in the total playspan user population? There is a LOT of information missing here.
In general, this is just another report from the PR Arm of the Department of Meaningless Statistics.