What does selling direct really cost?
Compare payment providers for your game studio. Calculate the real cost of selling direct to players—beyond the advertised transaction fee.
Start with your numbers
Beyond the transaction fee.
Practical references for game studios selling direct.
Guides
Where the platform rules stand
Reviewed 8 October 2026. Full detail and history
| Platform | Region | Link to a web shop? | Platform fee on linked purchases | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apple App Store | United States | Yes. Buttons, links and logged-in deep links, with only a neutral exit notice | 0% until a court approves a fee. Apple has proposed 15% (10% programs, 5% Small Business Program); no ruling yet | In court |
| Apple App Store | European Union | Yes | 15% (10% reduced) on sales within 7 days of the link tap, since 1 Oct 2026 | Allowed, with fee |
| Apple App Store | Japan and Brazil | Yes | 15% (10% reduced) on sales within 7 days of the link tap | Allowed, with fee |
| Apple App Store | South Korea | No | n/a | Restricted |
| Apple App Store | UK and rest of world | No. You may market web offers outside the app, by email for example | n/a | Restricted |
| Google Play | United States | Yes, through Google’s External Content Links program | 20% (15% Games Level Up, 10% on first $1M) on purchases within 24h of a link click, due since 1 Oct 2026; $3.65 per game install from 1 Dec 2026 | In court |
| Google Play | EEA, UK, Australia and Japan | Yes, alongside Play Billing | 20% (10% on first $1M) on purchases within 24h | Allowed, with fee |
| Google Play | Japan (external payments program) | Closed to new apps since 30 Sep 2026; ends after 31 Mar 2027. Enrolled games move to billing choice | 20% (10% on first $1M) on purchases within 24h, for enrolled games | Allowed, with fee |
| Google Play | South Korea and India | No link-out program | n/a | Restricted |
| Steam | Worldwide | No. Store pages may not link to other websites | n/a | Restricted |
| Epic Games Store | Worldwide | Yes | 0% | Allowed |
| Microsoft Store and Xbox | Worldwide | No. Games “must not direct users to a purchase mechanism other than” Microsoft’s | n/a | Restricted |
| Meta Quest | Worldwide | No. Cross-app linking cannot be monetised without Meta’s permission | n/a | Restricted |
| PlayStation and Nintendo | Worldwide | No public policy. Terms sit in confidential developer agreements | Not public | Restricted |
Publishers are moving revenue to their own stores
Listed mobile publishers now report how much of their revenue comes through their own web shops. Playtika put the reason plainly on its Q2 2026 call: it grew the channel “to protect our margins.”
Five rules for going direct
Price the whole stack
Payment method fees, currency conversion, payouts, refunds and chargebacks often sit outside the headline rate. Add them up before you compare.
Hidden feesKnow who the seller is
The legal seller owes the VAT and sales tax and answers for the chargebacks. With a merchant of record that is the provider. With a PSP it is you.
How a merchant of record worksCheck the rule in every region you link from
A link that costs nothing in the US App Store has cost 15% in the EU since 1 October 2026. Google charges on purchases made within 24 hours of a link click.
Platform rulesBudget for traffic as well as checkout
Studios surveyed by Appcharge and GDC in 2026 named player awareness as the biggest barrier to web shop revenue. A shop nobody visits saves nothing.
Getting players to your shopKeep the exit open
Ask in writing whether player purchase history and stored payment details can be exported if you change provider, and how long notice runs.
Questions to ask suppliers
Know what selling direct will cost before you sign
Apple, Google and the courts have opened more routes to sell outside app store billing than at any point since the stores launched. An app store takes one fee. A web shop replaces it with a dozen smaller ones, plus tax and chargeback liability that someone has to carry. This site lays out the rules, the costs and the questions to ask, with a source for every figure.
How we work
Every fee, threshold and ruling on this site links to the document it came from: a provider’s pricing page, a platform guideline, a court opinion or a tax authority. Each guide shows the date it was last reviewed. Where a provider does not publish a price, we say so and do not guess.
d2c.guide is run by Tebex, which sells merchant of record services to game studios. Tebex appears in our tables alongside every other provider, on the same terms. More about who we are.