Setting aside the children without parental control from the UK, Distimo has studied the U.S. App Store and found that the popularity of in-app purchases is unstoppable. In fact, in-app purchases generated a record 76% of all revenue in the Apple App Store for iPhone in the U.S. in February, the app analytics firm says.
The growth seems inevitable: While in-app purchases accounted for roughly 53% of revenue in the App Store for iPhone in January 2012, this has grown 23% in just over a year, and the growth curve still points upwards.
Interestingly, though, the share of revenue generated by in-app purchases in the Asian market surpasses even the mature U.S. market, as it stands at 90% in Hong Kong, Japan, China and South Korea, according to Distimo.
In other words, the app business model spiced with in-app purchase is the scenario that seems to monetize the apps developers submit into the App Store. To put that into numbers, Distimo says:
For the top 10 apps below, the all-time revenues per download are shown in the table, and shows there are large differences per app. The ARPD ranges from $0.37 for What’s the Word? to $7.04 for Rage of Bahamut. Clash of Clans, the top grossing app on iPhone in the US in February, generated $4.66 per download on average to date. Candy Crush Saga, the second most grossing app for iPhone, still generates less revenue per download than Clash of Clans though. Of course, it should be noted that Candy Crush Saga has had less time to monetize as it has been released about four months after Clash of Clans. Hay Day, Supercell’s second hit app generated $3.29 per download on iPhone in the US. Rage of Bahamut generated most revenue per download of top these top grossing apps and MARVEL War of Heroes, another top Mobage app, generated $2.93 per download on average on iPhone in the US.
As you can see from the above analysis, freemium apps generate less revenue than paid apps, whereas paid apps with in-app purchases enabled generate more revenue than paid apps without in-app purchases.
