Recent figures show that Pearl Abyss earns about three times as much money with the mobile version of the MMORPG Black Desert than with the PC version.
Are mobile players more willing to spend than PC players? Looking at what Pearl Abyss earns from Black Desert Mobile, it seems to be the case.
Mobile version of Black Desert is very successful
This is how much Pearl Abyss earns with Black Desert: A revenue report reveals that Black Desert Online generated a revenue of $26.3 million in the second quarter of 2018. During the same period – and this is only in Korea – the game studio generated a revenue of $73.5 million with the mobile version of Black Desert.
This is nearly three times the revenue of the PC version. And this revenue will further increase when Black Desert Mobile launches in Europe and the USA in the first quarter of 2019.
Why is Black Desert Mobile more profitable than the PC version? The mobile games market operates differently than the PC games market.
The total revenue in the computer games sector was $108.4 billion in 2017:
- Of this, $46.1 billion was solely from mobile game revenues.
- About $33.6 billion was spent on console games.
- And approximately $29.4 billion for PC games.
Moreover, the mobile games market continues to grow steadily and is expected to account for at least half of all video game revenues by 2020.
Why do mobile players spend more money? The figures show that the purchasing power in the mobile gaming sector is very high. Players seem to be more willing to buy in-game currency for a few euros. This may also be related to the fact that mobile players come from a broader target group, including casual gamers and many young people.
On PC, however, hardcore gamers dominate. Getting these players to spend money in an in-game shop is significantly harder than for mobile players.
Moreover, a whole generation of gamers is growing up with in-app purchases. For young players who are growing up with mobile games, microtransactions are the standard payment method. Older players, on the other hand, grew up with buy-to-play titles or subscriptions and are more skeptical towards in-game shops.
