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In mobile games, 60% of revenues come from 0.23% of players

  • Posted byby Dean Takahashi
  • Updated
  • 2 min

Mobile gamers are either cheapskates or they’ve learned that they don’t really have to purchase anything in a free-to-play game. Those are logical conclusions from a new report from mobile marketing automation firm Swrve.

Swrve found that only 0.23 percent of all players generate 60 percent of all in-game revenues. That’s a tiny segment, and it’s why game companies should treat their best payers, known in the industry as whales, as high rollers.

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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.