Mobile game web shops: how they work, what they earn, what they cost

How a web shop works, from tap to delivery

A mobile web shop sells the same currency, bundles and passes as the in-game store. The difference is who takes the payment. In the game, Apple or Google sells to the player and pays you what is left after commission. On the web, you or a merchant of record sell to the player, and you pay card, tax and fraud costs instead.

Every web shop has to do four things.

Steps 2 and 4 are where the merchant of record (MoR) and payment service provider (PSP) routes split. A merchant of record is the legal seller, collects and remits sales tax and VAT, and fights chargebacks on its own account. With a PSP, those jobs stay with you. Merchant of record vs payment service provider sets the two side by side.

In the US, the court orders in Epic v. Apple specifically protect step 1: Apple may not restrict “dynamic links that bring consumers to a specific product page in a logged-in state.” Elsewhere, where links from the game are not allowed, the player has to find the shop and sign in on their own.

Where players can spend web currency, and where you can link to the shop

Two separate questions decide what a web shop can do on each platform: may the game honor a purchase made on the web, and may the game tell the player the shop exists?

Apple answers the first question the same way in every country:

Google has no clause as direct. Its policy says in-app virtual currencies “must only be used within the app or game title for which they were purchased.” Its payments FAQ lets an app give access to content bought elsewhere if the app is “consumption-only,” which Google defines as an app where nothing “can be purchased from within the app.” A game that sells through Play Billing does not meet that definition. Where Google runs a link-out or billing-choice program (US, EEA, UK, Australia, Japan), web purchases made through the link are covered by the program. Outside those programs, get Google’s answer for your game in writing.

The second question depends on the storefront. All figures below are as of October 2026.

Both stores let you talk about the shop outside the app. Apple’s guideline 3.1.3 says developers “can send communications outside of the app to their user base about purchasing methods other than in-app purchase,” and Google’s FAQ says “Outside of your app, you are free to communicate with your users about alternative purchase options.” Email, social channels, community servers and your website reach every player, in every country, without a platform fee.

Who runs one

For finance teams, EA’s set-up is a merchant of record arrangement. Coda sells FC Mobile items to players as an authorized reseller, so Coda, not EA, is the seller the player pays.

What they earn

Listed publishers report the share of revenue their own channels bring in. Each uses its own base, so read the direction rather than rank the rows.

All eight figures come from the companies’ own releases, reports or filings. The D2C share tracker keeps this table current. Sensor Tower adds an estimate across genres: in the US in H1 2026, about 30% of the revenue of the top 100 casino games came from web shops, with RPGs close behind.

Vendor case studies report faster moves, and should be read as marketing. According to Aghanim, a web shop provider, Fortune Mine Games raised its web share of revenue from 18% to 40% globally within a month, and to 60% on US iOS.

What web bonuses look like

A web bonus pays players for the extra steps: leaving the game, signing in, typing card details. Extra currency costs you no cash, though it does add currency to the economy.

Offers and bonuses covers pricing tactics and how to test the bonus level.

Why many web shops underperform

Adoption at the top is still thin. Naavik counted web shops at only 22% of the top 50 US iOS grossing games in October 2025, six months after Apple was ordered to allow links.

The survey Appcharge ran with GDC describes the split. 45% of respondents got less than 10% of revenue from D2C, while 28% got more than half. Studios named player awareness (50%) and player acquisition (41%) as their top barriers, and 54% had no staff dedicated to D2C.

The evidence points to three causes:

• Players do not know the shop exists. According to Xsolla, a web shop provider, adding a direct link from the game lifted one partner’s web shop revenue by 65%. That is a single example, but it matches the survey’s awareness finding.
• Conversion per visit is lower on the web. RevenueCat’s controlled test on Dipsea, a subscription app rather than a game, converted 27.0% through in-app purchase and 18.1% through the web link. The leading shops make up for it with repeat buyers. According to Appcharge, 97% of web shop revenue across its transactions came from repeat buyers.
• The best shops draw much of their traffic from outside the game. Sensor Tower puts Supercell Store traffic at 37% from social and Raid: Shadow Legends at 49%. In the Appcharge and GDC survey, studios ranked social (69%), influencers (45%) and events (36%) as their best channels.

Pricing adds a fourth. A bonus too small moves nobody; one too large gives away margin on players who would have paid in the game anyway.

Driving traffic covers the link placements, CRM and creator programs the high-share games use.

What it costs

The costs come in three layers.

The first is the platform fee on linked purchases, from the table above: 0% on US iOS today, 15% in the Apple EU, Japan and Brazil programs, 20% on Google in the US, EEA, UK, Australia and Japan. Purchases that start from email or social channels carry none.

The second is payment costs. A merchant of record bundles card processing, tax, fraud and chargebacks into its fee; Paddle, for example, publishes 5% + 50¢ per transaction. A payment service provider charges less per transaction but leaves tax registrations, VAT returns, fraud screening and chargeback losses with you. Currency conversion, payout fees, refunds and reserves sit on top of either. Hidden fees lists each line.

The third is the cost of building and running the shop: engineering for sign-in, delivery and the storefront, plus the people who run offers, support and disputes. Build vs buy prices the in-house route.

Checklist: should you build one now?

1. Pull the share of your revenue from players who spend over a threshold you choose, such as $100 a month. If it is small, a web shop will struggle to move enough spend to pay for itself.
2. Count the players you can reach outside the game: email opt-ins, community members, social followers. That is your traffic in every country where links from the game are not allowed.
3. Confirm your game accounts work outside the app, with a sign-in the web shop can use and a server that credits items.
4. Check every item you plan to sell on the web is also sold as an in-app purchase, as Apple’s guideline 3.1.3(b) requires.
5. Decide merchant of record or payment service provider before you pick a vendor. It sets who files tax and who owns chargebacks.
6. Set the bonus level and have the economy designer sign it off.
7. Model net margin at Apple 0%, 15% and 27% on US links and Google 20%, in the calculator.
8. Launch to US iOS players and your highest spenders first, and measure web share of their spend weekly for the first 90 days.