In-app purchase
Payment inside the app through the store's system — and the business model that made free apps the industry's most profitable.
The stores divide purchases into consumables (game currency), non-consumables (unlocking a feature) and subscriptions. Payment always goes through the platform's checkout, which takes 15 or 30 per cent, and pointing users to a cheaper route outside the app has long been forbidden.
The model skews the economics: revenue concentrates in a small share of heavy spenders, which in gaming produced both the term "whales" and an ongoing argument about loot boxes and mechanics aimed at children. Epic Games' litigation and the EU's Digital Markets Act have begun opening alternative payment routes.