- Direct-to-consumer (DTC) in mobile gaming is estimated to be a $17Bn industry
- GDC and Appcharge research finds 92% of developers expect DTC revenue to grow
- Analysis of more than $1bn in DTC transactions shows payment decisions affect approval rates, order value and repeat purchases
Direct-to-consumer (DTC) monetisation in mobile gaming is a $17Bn market and growing, according to research published by GDC Festival of Gaming and Appcharge, the leading DTC payments infrastructure platform for mobile games.
Based on a 2026 survey of more than 1,200 professional game developers, the report examines how publishers are responding to the changing app-store payment landscape following the April 2025 Epic Games v. Apple ruling.
The GDC and Appcharge research shows how DTC is reshaping mobile gaming. 92% of publishers surveyed expect their DTC revenues to grow this year, with 41% expecting double-digit growth.
While the original uplift was driven by avoiding 30% app store fees, the research shows the value publishers are capturing has expanded beyond margin improvement. Median DTC revenue uplift is 15% across the full sample, rising to 35% for leading adopters. More than three-quarters (77%) of publishers say DTC monetisation now performs at least as well as their app store channels, and 63% of leading adopters say it is doing better.
Publishers also report that DTC is enabling direct ownership of player relationships, richer first-party data, faster experimentation, and the ability to design offers and experiences that were not possible inside app store billing. Top objectives for investing in DTC include increasing revenue (63%), building direct relationships with players (53%), improving monetisation (45%), and reducing dependency on app stores (40%).
A gap is opening between DTC leaders and the rest of the industry. 62% of publishers describe themselves as behind their peers on DTC, while only 14% consider themselves innovators and 25% say their DTC programs are scaling or mature.
“The research shows what happens when publishers finally own the relationship with their players – direct access to data, control over pricing and offers, and the ability to pass real value back to players,” said Maor Sason, CEO and co-founder of Appcharge. “The publishers who committed to this early aren’t just ahead on revenue. They know their players better, they retain them longer, and they have more control over where the business goes next. In a few years, we won’t think of DTC as an alternative – it will simply be how the most successful games operate.”
In addition, analysis of a year of DTC transactions across Appcharge’s payments stack, representing more than $1 billion in annual processed volume, shows that payment decisions can have a measurable impact on approval rates, order value, and repeat purchasing.
The study found that routing a payment through a bank in the player’s own country rather than cross-border can raise the approval rate by 8.4 percentage points. It also found that payment method choice can affect repeat purchasing: among a cohort of nearly 44,000 Brazilian players, those using Pix completed third and fourth purchases at higher rates than those using credit cards, Google Pay and Apple Pay.
“The shift toward direct-to-consumer payments will not remain limited to mobile games,” said Eric Liaw, General Partner at IVP, contributing to the Appcharge / GDC report. “Other consumer apps operate under similar platform fee structures and face similar constraints when attempting to build direct relationships with users. Gaming is among the first large-scale proving grounds for direct-to-consumer apps. Developers in categories such as fitness, education, entertainment, and other subscription services will see the same economic benefits, and the shift could extend across the broader app economy.”
The mobile gaming in-app purchase market is projected to approach $121.1Bn by the end of 2026 (according to Newzoo), while the global IAP market across all consumer apps was estimated at $190Bn in 2025 and projected to reach $290Bn by 2030. This points to a DTC opportunity that could run into the tens of billions across the app economy.
The report identifies player awareness (50%) and player acquisition (41%) as the biggest challenges to scaling DTC. Leading adopters are addressing these through greater use of content creators and influencers, in-game messaging, and partnerships with specialist DTC infrastructure providers. 83% of companies now assign DTC accountability to director-level or above, evidence that DTC is being treated as a strategic priority.
The full report, Direct-to-Consumer is a $17 Billion Market for Mobile Gaming, is available here
