Games Make Less on Ads

In-game ads don't look like this, but it might be kind of cool... especially if I could blow them up.

An interesting study by Mobclix shows that games make less on ads than other types of apps. Their study looked at free apps with over 500,000 downloads and 75,000 active users. Games on iOS generated $4 per user, while games on Android generated $1.90 per user. Compare this to utilities, which generated $9.50 per user on iOS. So games haven't been pulling in the money that they could... perhaps gamers are too busy, you know, gaming to actually click on ads.

Of course, this study didn't look at virtual goods in comparison. But it does show that ad-supported games are generally not as good a solution as other types of apps. Something to think about when you look at monetization options.