Fortnite is back on Google Play. Google has cut its store fee to 20% – or 15% if developers integrate its AI assistant, cloud saves, and achievements. The headlines have focused on what developers stand to save. But the more important question is what this moment exposes. The industry doesn’t actually have a reliable picture of where mobile game revenue comes from anymore.
That’s the real story behind the store fee debate. And until we’re honest about that, the decisions being made right now about fees, distribution, and where to invest are being made on incomplete information.
The ground has shifted, but our maps haven’t
Over the last few years, top publishers have quietly built a second revenue layer. Web stores – browser-based shops sitting outside the app store ecosystem – now run alongside in-app purchase flows for a growing number of major games. The incentive is straightforward. To avoid the 15–30% platform fee means publishers can offer players better value and capture more margin at the same time. Regulatory shifts have accelerated this. In key markets, Apple and Google are now required to permit links to third-party payment options, removing the legal barriers that previously kept commerce inside platform walls.
The scale of adoption is striking. According to an Appcharge analysis of Sensor Tower data, 72% of top-grossing mobile games now operate a web store. D2C and alternative payment revenue grew 26% year-on-year across games in the Americas in 2025, with the top 100 titles growing D2C earnings by 38%, per AppMagic. Public company disclosures are starting to reflect this too: Stillfront Group derived 39% of net revenue from D2C in Q2 2025, Playtika reported 25% with a stated target of 40%, and Huuuge Games grew its D2C share from 8% to 34% in just two years.
This is no longer a niche experiment. It’s a mainstream strategic channel that’s largely invisible to the tools most of the industry relies on to read the market.
What the data doesn’t show
Take RAID: Shadow Legends as a concrete example. Over recent months, app store revenue charts have shown a declining trend in the US. On the surface, that looks like softening performance. But spend five minutes inside the game and a different picture emerges. There’s a persistent banner pointing players to a web store. Click it, and you’re shown a clear value proposition (such as bonus currency or exclusive items) that are available only if you complete your purchase through the browser. Go to buy something directly from the in-game store, and the checkout screen presents two paths side by side: the platform purchase, or the web payment option.
That’s not a loophole. It’s a deliberately designed experience built to redirect meaningful spending off-platform. And none of those web transactions appear in the store charts. What looks like a revenue decline may simply be a measurement gap.
I’ve spoken with some studios reporting that D2C now accounts for somewhere in the range of 50 to 60% of their revenue. Not every company will be at that level. But the direction of travel is clear, and the gap between what’s happening and what’s being measured is widening.
Nobody has the full picture – yet
I recently sat down with Anthony Bartolacci, Chief Strategy Officer at Sensor Tower, on the sidelines of an industry event, and the conversation was telling. The company’s view is that gaming in-app purchases through Apple and Google are up slightly year over year. But that doesn’t tell the whole story. From its work with partners across the gaming ecosystem, D2C is becoming a more significant part of the business. And critically, it acknowledged it’s now imperative for data providers to start putting real markers around how big that segment actually is – which categories are leaning into it, what customer behaviour looks like, and who’s doing it best.
Store charts and top-grossing lists were already a lagging indicator. In a multi-channel world, they’re increasingly a fiction
That kind of intellectual honesty matters. Because if a significant portion of spending is flowing outside the stores, and that spending is largely invisible to the tools most analysts and publishers rely on, then the charts we use to read the market are no longer telling us what we think they are. Store charts and top-grossing lists were already a lagging indicator. In a multi-channel world, they’re increasingly a fiction.
What needs to change
I should be transparent here. Measurement is the problem AppsFlyer is built to solve, so I have skin in this game. But the issue is real regardless of who fixes it, and it’s bigger than any single vendor.
Right now, marketing teams are evaluating campaign performance against in-store revenue alone, potentially misattributing activity that converts on the web. A campaign that drives high-value players who then spend through a web store can look like it failed if only in-app revenue is counted. That’s not a marginal error. At the revenue shares being reported by leading publishers, it’s a material one.
The industry needs measurement that connects user journeys across media touchpoints, in-app behaviour, and web transactions. Attributing revenue regardless of where it lands and reflecting lifetime value inclusive of off-store activity. That means data providers extending coverage into D2C channels, publishers being more open about what a complete performance picture looks like, and analysts contextualising store data rather than leading with it.
The platform era is being renegotiated
Google cutting its fee and Fortnite returning to the Play Store makes clear that platforms remain central to distribution. But that renegotiation is happening against a backdrop of genuine measurement uncertainty and the strategic decisions being made right now deserve better data than the industry currently has.
The mobile gaming market is more complex, more distributed, and frankly more interesting than the store charts suggest. Building a shared, reliable view of what revenue actually looks like across all its channels isn’t just a data exercise. It’s the foundation for navigating what comes next. And it’s a challenge the whole industry needs to take seriously, not just the measurement companies.
