Mobile publishers push further toward direct-to-consumer stores as app-store dependence keeps shrinking

New second-quarter data shows how aggressively major mobile publishers are moving revenue toward their own direct-to-consumer channels. Playtika generated $286.9 million in D2C revenue during Q2, representing 39.3 percent of company revenue despite a small sequential decline. Modern Times Group reported that direct sales accounted for 38 percent of group revenue, while the newly branded Playamp midcore division reached 51 percent.

Stillfront said D2C represented 46 percent of bookings, and G5 Entertainment reported its own store accounted for 25.5 percent of total gross revenue. The social-casino sector is moving even faster in some cases: DoubleDown Interactive said direct sales represented more than half of social-casino revenue. These figures explain why payment policy has become such a major mobile-industry issue.

Publishers can significantly improve margins when players purchase through proprietary websites rather than conventional app stores. The trade-off is that companies need to operate payments, customer service, fraud prevention and marketing themselves. Apple's continuing legal dispute with Epic Games could change those economics further. What once looked like an experiment by a handful of large publishers is increasingly becoming a normal part of mature mobile live-service operations.