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Developers, brace for a bloodbath: The cost of getting a new mobile gamer exceeds revenue that user generates

  • Posted byby Dean Takahashi
  • Updated
  • 2 min

This may not come as a surprise to those watching trends in mobile, but the cost of acquiring a new smartphone or tablet gamer in October exceeded the average revenue companies got from that player.

The numbers from a new market research study suggest that mobile game makers should be cautious about how much they spend on acquiring new players, particularly if their free-to-play mobile games generate an average amount of revenue. SuperData, a New York-based market research firm, warns that we may see a “bloodbath” as companies try to spend too much money getting players who don’t spend enough.

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Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.