According to Inside Social Games and Social Gold, the average paying user spends $60 per year to purchase virtual goods. The 5 top paying users (for Social Gold) ranged from $11,635 – $25,540.
Users who make a purchase versus those that do not, are still very low. According to Vikas Gupta, the co-founder of Jambool, it’s only a couple of percent:
Purchasing rates are still low, with often times only couple percent of players making a purchase at all, but a growing number of people that make an initial purchase will buy more.
Following the first purchase 56 percent will buy again, according to Jambool, while another 25 percent will make two or more purchases. The average amount purchased across all these groups is $60, while there’s a significant group of “whales” who spend over $1,000.
The key take away, is to motivate that first purchase in-game (and then keep the players playing).
I think that first purchase is one place where Zynga games really shine. While starting to play CityVille I was amazed at how quickly the goals became an option of either grinding, purchasing, or inviting friends to the game.
Targeting the Whales is another key. Watch what they do in-game and what they buy and consider building out game mechanics and virtual goods inventory to follow that behavior. Bring them over into other games. They like your game enough to spend money on it, listen to them, and give them more options for enjoyment.
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