Player-acquisition costs rise on mobile even as revenues-per-gamer holds steady

Mobile developers are spending more than ever to acquire new gamers, but those new players aren’t spending any more cash on their games.

It cost mobile publishers more than ever to acquire new customers in December. The cost for a new install (CPI) hit $4.36 last month, according to market analysis firm SuperData Research. That’s up more than 288 percent from January 2012 (the month SuperData started tracking this information), when CPI was only $1.30. For a more direct comparison, in December CPI was $2.23. December’s costs were also three times higher than the monthly average for 2013.