The free-to-play (F2P) pricing model allows players to engage with a game for free, while the business generates revenue through ads and/or microtransactions. Players can purchase items like battle passes, new cosmetics, and extra lives to customize their gameplay experience.

Advantages of Free-to-Play

For players, the value proposition is clear. The game itself is free, additional monetization is optional, and there is an implied contract of ongoing support. This appeals to a wide variety of motivations and play styles.

For developers, the primary advantage is an extremely broad top-of-funnel. If handled correctly, the game can support long-tail engagement and monetization.

Disadvantages of Free-To-Play

For players, disadvantages can arise if the developer fails to maintain a robust content roadmap, causing the game to grow stale. F2P players can also be more sensitive to perceived inequality between paying and non-paying users.

For developers, F2P relies on significant post-launch support. This can be challenging to balance, as only a small percentage of the player base will typically spend money.

Fortnite’s F2P success comes from direct purchases of cosmetics and battle passes.

Free-to-Play purchase drivers

Purchase drivers in F2P games are aimed at improving the gameplay experience and allowing players to express their identity in-game. Because F2P attracts a large number of players, the most effective drivers allow users to show off their skill, status, or identity via in-app purchases. These drivers include utility purchases, which can include new characters, additional game modes, and consumables. Customization/cosmetics often include cosmetic skins, IP collaboration skins, accessories, emotes, lobby avatars, and new animations or visual effects.

Leveraging live services and seasonality

Live services refer to recurring updates and support that keep content fresh and engaging for an active community. Experiences with live services expand over time to include new content launches, in-app purchases, seasonal challenges, bug fixes, and other ongoing updates.

Paid and free-to-play apps with live services typically experience increases in revenue associated with the launch of new content. These revenue spikes produce a longer and more stable runway to build your user community, polish your app experience, and experiment with new mechanics, modes, or features.

“An ongoing pipeline of DLC and other content updates at a reliable cadence with modes, features, and activities has been super important both to player engagement and growth as well as to revenue.” — Mighty Coconut

Several developers with live-service apps have boosted their growth by strategically timing their content updates to coincide with periods of increased spending and time spent in-headset. Consistently updating content on the same day of the week, when engagement spikes, can lead to better opportunities to maximize content exposure. Additionally, for free-to-play apps, a two-week content update cadence is generally recommended to spur ongoing engagement.

“We think a lot about which courses go in the key December, January, and March timeframes based on the highest headset usage, but also we do heavily consider which courses sync in with holidays like Halloween or even Valentine’s Day as well as the four seasons.” — Mighty Coconut

DLC and live service game Walkabout Mini Golf

Walkabout Mini Golf keeps its social experiences fresh with a steady release of new, uniquely themed DLC courses.

Regardless of your business model, consider opportunities to introduce new content that will drive user engagement and monetization. Using tools and features like creative A/B tests, bundles, sales promotions, price A/B tests, and subscriptions can improve results and tailor price points to meet your target audience.

“Our key takeaway: in a fast-evolving medium like VR, speed of execution is paramount. If you delay too long, someone else may ship a similar concept ahead of you. It’s a hard-earned lesson we’ve observed repeatedly in this space.” — Squido Studio

Less common pricing models and their purchase drivers

Free-to-Start

The free-to-start (FTS) model, one of the less common approaches, delivers a free initial demo experience and then prompts the player to purchase the full game. The primary difference between F2P and FTS is that FTS typically offers only a single unlock purchase or a small number of content-focused purchases, rather than recurring microtransactions.

While the main purchase is the full game unlock, FTS can offer some extra monetization for items like new characters, customization, or playable content. However, it is rare for FTS to offer recurring microtransactions, as many FTS games are not built with the ongoing post-launch support that F2P requires.

Mannequin, a free-to-start game, offers players a deeper gameplay experience if they purchase the full-game unlock.

Free-to-Start purchase drivers

For free-to-start games, the main purchase driver (similar to premium and premium+) is the game itself, or more specifically the game unlock. Therefore, it is critical that the demo content is as compelling as possible to drive players toward purchasing the complete experience.

A clear understanding of the available pricing models and their respective purchase drivers is the key to successfully monetizing your game. Whether choosing the front-loaded revenue of a premium title or the long-tail engagement of a free-to-play or live service model, the most successful strategies align the monetization approach with the core player experience. By thoughtfully selecting a model and planning for post-launch content, you can build a sustainable business and a thriving player community.

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