Mobile gaming revenue is under threat from reverse-engineering and other hacks

Mobile gaming is boom. 2020 app revenue topped $111 billion, 30% more than all of 2019, according to research firm Sensor Tower. It estimates that gaming hit $79.5 billion on mobile, and 43% of that gaming revenue comes from in-app purchases, according to 2020 study from Wappier.

With in-app purchases making up such a large percentage of mobile game revenue, hacks that enable gamers to get free stuff without making in-app purchases are a huge threat. And hacking is simple to do. To illustrate just how easy it is, take a look at this YouTube video, in which a mobile gamer shows how to use an emulator to cheat in the Jurassic World mobile game on Android. In less than 5 minutes, he creates his own patch for the game, which makes in-app purchases free.