Today PlaySpan and research firm VGMarket announced the findings of a comprehensive survey of player purchasing habits in online freemium games. The survey found that well over half (58%) of players surveyed had spent money on virtual items in free-to-play games in the past year. One-third of players (34%) had made purchases in MMORPGs while roughly one-quarter (23%) had made purchases in social games.
In terms of dollars spent, freemium games drew the highest amounts with a median expenditure of $75. Median expenditure in MMORPGs was $60 and in social games it was $50. The average survey correspondent played roughly three online freemium games and 80% buy items for their own use. About 20% reported buying virtual items as gifts. The survey's 2,425 respondents were selected from PlaySpan Marketplace users, Spare Charge users, and Ultimate Game Card users.
The most commonly purchased virtual item (71%) was virtual currency, which most games require for the purchase of other virtual items. The study also found the median number of transactions for virtual currency was highest. The next most purchased type of virtual item (37%) was weapons and then subscription codes (30%). After that, users reported purchasing wearables (26%), power-ups (25%), and virtual gifts (19%). Finishing out the list was DLC content (16%).
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4 Responses to Over Half Of Gamers Purchasing In Freemium Games
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I am wondering if the fact that sample of people taken were users of one of PlaySpan’s products skews the results. Doesn’t the comment “The survey’s 2,425 respondents were selected from PlaySpan Marketplace users, Spare Charge users, and Ultimate Game Card users.” show that the users in this sample already had the intent to buy? I really wouldn’t call this a random sample. Am I missing something?
While I do think it’s pretty arguable that there’s some bias in the selection here, the breakdown of the sample would need to be known in more detail to say anything definitive on the subject.
PlaySpan’s Marketplace services include shopfronts, player-to-player trading, and general transaction services for client games. While it could be assumed a Spare Change user probably already had intent to buy, the same can’t necessarily be said of a user selected through the Marketplace.
With the Ultimate Game Card a substantial portion of users (if not the majority) receive them as gifts. It seems possible that Ultimate Game Card users polled might otherwise have no intent to buy using their own funds.
“median expenditure of $75″
per month or per year?
All data from the survey reflects user behavior within the past 12 months.