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September 10, 2025
What does in-app purchase mean?
5 in-app purchase examples across industries
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SubscribeSuccessfully monetizing your mobile app is no easy feat – it requires a multifaceted strategy that combines several monetization avenues to unlock your app’s full potential. One of the top models used by publishers is in-app purchases (IAP), which has grown exponentially with the popularity of freemium app models.
With the introduction of in-app purchases in 2009, IAP has grown to become one of the most dominant monetization models in the mobile space. As of 2025, around half (48%)1 of all mobile app revenue comes from in-app purchases. And with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22.3%, total market value is expected to hit $255.84B by the end of the year.1
But why do so many publishers choose to implement IAP into their app? Let’s take a look at the ins and outs of in-app purchases – from different IAP types and examples across mobile industries, to top tips for implementing IAP strategies into your mobile app.
*All figures in this article are in USD.
In-app purchases are any digital goods, services, or subscriptions that can be purchased in an app. These can take many forms, such as consumable items, access to new content, or even the removal of ads.
IAP is a tried-and-true form of app monetization, with approximately 50% of non-gaming and 79% of gaming apps2 featuring in-app purchases. The popularity of IAP is due in large part to its high revenue potential. Despite only 5–6% of mobile app users3 ever making an in-app purchase, they tend to spend in large amounts – making it a profitable strategy for mobile publishers.
However, mobile publishers only get to keep 70% of an IAP’s revenue, with a 30% cut being taken by the app store hosting the app. This has led to the rise in popularity of alternative monetization methods, such as direct-to-consumer (DTC) webshops, which allow publishers to keep a much larger percentage of their IAP revenue.
IAPs are a key monetization model used by mobile publishers, often in tandem with other methods such as in-app advertising (IAA). These strategies allow publishers to operate on a freemium model, in which there is no upfront cost for using the app, but revenue is still generated through post-install monetization.
👀 Related reading: Monetizing your mobile app: The path to profitable in-app advertising
There are many different forms of in-app purchases, which fall into three distinct buckets: consumable IAPs, durable IAPs, and subscription IAPs.
Consumable IAPs are in-app items, perks, or bonuses that can be purchased and used a limited number of times before having to be repurchased. They can help encourage repeat spend by granting temporary advantages or faster progression for users to benefit from. Consumable IAPs can take many different forms across a number of app categories, making them a versatile and lucrative option for publishers.
Example: Comic-reading app, Webtoon sells IAP coins which users can purchase and use to unlock new chapters, full story bundles, and early access to new releases.
Example: Streaming apps like Apple TV+ allow users to rent movies for periods of 48 hours, during which time they can watch the movie as many times as they want.
Example: Language-learning app, Duolingo lets users purchase extra lives after failing a lesson too many times, so they can skip the wait time it takes for lives to regenerate.
Durable IAPs grant permanent features to users with a single, one-time purchase. These purchases are often tied to a user’s account, making them transferable across devices, and easy to recover if the user deletes the app and later redownloads it.
These in-app purchases typically have a higher value, as they can be accessed permanently and will not expire. As a result, they will often be priced higher than consumable IAPs.
Some examples of durable IAPs include:
Subscription IAPs are a recurring in-app purchase that grants users access to new features or perks during the subscription period. Payments are usually done on a monthly or yearly basis, and users will lose access to premium features if they cancel their subscription.
Subscriptions have become increasingly popular in recent years, with many apps from mobile gaming to fitness implementing a subscription service for premium features. Music-streaming app, Spotify operates on a freemium model, in which users can use the app for free with ads and limited functionality, or subscribe to get access to the full list of features.
💡 Best practice: Offering users a temporary free trial of your app’s subscription is a great way to pique interest and increase conversions.
In-app purchases are used across practically the entire mobile industry, with certain types of IAPs being favored by specific app categories. Depending on the structure, mechanics, and core engagement loop of your app, a particular type of IAP might work better than another.
The following examples showcase apps with in-app purchases from five different categories, each with their own IAP strategies that work in tandem with their core functionality.
📱 Category: Gaming
💳 IAP type: Consumable
🔎 Overview: Candy Crush Saga is a popular Match-3 mobile game developed by King. With around 180M monthly active users (MAU) and over 3.6B downloads as of 20244, Candy Crush offers a number of in-app purchases aimed at helping users progress through the game and stay engaged. These purchases include extra lives, boosts to clear difficult levels, and gold bars, which function as a virtual currency to purchase additional boosts.
📈 The numbers:
👀 Related reading: Play and profit: A developer’s guide to in-app purchases for mobile game monetization
📱 Category: Meditation/Wellness
💳 IAP type: Subscription, durable
🔎 Overview: Calm is a leading mobile app in the meditation and wellness industry. Users can go through guided meditation, listen to narrated Sleep Stories, and engage in multi-day wellness programs. Two major IAPs are available for purchase – a yearly $69.99 subscription, or a one-time purchase of $399.99 (equivalent to 5.7 years of subscriptions) to gain access to all features.
These two IAP options give users the freedom to avoid recurring subscription fees if they envision using the app for a prolonged period of time. Both the recurring subscription and lifetime payment include the same features.
📈 The numbers:
📱 Category: Video streaming
💳 IAP type: Subscription, consumable, durable
🔎 Overview: YouTube’s subscription service, YouTube Premium offers three tiers of monthly subscriptions – individual ($13.99), family ($22.99), and student ($7.99). By subscribing to Premium, users gain access to ad-free listening on both YouTube and YouTube Music, the ability to download videos and play them offline, and the ability to play videos in the background while on their phone.
In addition to YouTube Premium, users of the streaming service can also rent movies and shows for a temporary period, or purchase them permanently. Rentals have a 30-day window, with 48 hours to watch once viewing has begun.
📈 The numbers:
📱 Category: Social media
💳 IAP type: Consumable
🔎 Overview: Social media giant, TikTok offers in-app goods that can be purchased with coins. These coins are used primarily to tip live streamers and promote posts, but can also be used in the TikTok Shop – a digital marketplace where users can promote and sell their own products.
When a user wishes to tip a streamer, they can purchase gifts using their TikTok coins. For every gift a streamer receives, TikTok will reward them with diamonds, equivalent to 50% of the gift’s value. These diamonds can then be converted by the streamer into real money.
📈 The numbers:
📱 Category: Dating
💳 IAP type: Subscription, consumable
🔎 Overview: Bumble is one of the top dating apps with in-app purchases available. Users can subscribe to Bumble Premium (or the higher tier, Premium+) to unlock features such as unlimited swipes, the ability to see who has liked your profile, and advanced filters, to name a few.
If users don’t wish to subscribe but are still looking for extra features, individual consumable IAPs such as Spotlights – which temporarily boost your profile’s visibility – and Superswipes – which put you at the top of a potential match’s feed – are available for purchase. These boosts can be purchased individually, or in bundles of 5, 15, and 30.
📈 The numbers:
DTC webshops are a rapidly emerging form of monetization that many app publishers are choosing to adopt in their products. These shops serve as external marketplaces, where users can make purchases through the publisher’s website instead of directly in the app, resulting in certain advantages for mobile app publishers.
By redirecting user traffic to a DTC shop, for instance, publishers can bypass steep fees from app store titans like Apple and Google. With both stores taking 30% of IAP revenue18 from publishers, DTC webshops actually enable publishers to keep more of the total revenue.
Alongside higher-margin revenue and increased LTV, DTC shops also help establish closer business-customer relationships. Strengthening these relationships can improve retention by giving users personalized offers that cycle regularly to keep them coming back. And with returning customers spending an average of 67% more19 than first-time customers, this can greatly improve revenue.
👀 Related reading: The race to web: How direct-to-consumer web shops are transforming mobile game monetization
Pricing your IAP offers requires careful consideration. Many different factors go into building a solid IAP monetization strategy, and establishing the right type of IAP at the right price point for your users is critical.
With so many options available, choosing the best possible IAP for your mobile app matters. For example, mobile game publishers might find more value in consumable IAPs, as users are more likely to spend on temporary boosts or extra lives to clear difficult levels and ensure their progression. Streaming services, on the other hand, tend to offer users IAPs to remove ads, so that they can view content without interruption.
Many publishers will opt for multiple different types of IAPs to give users more choice. Diversifying this selection opens up more spending opportunities and allows users to choose options they will get the most value from.
💡 Takeaway: Checking out the IAP offers from similar, competitor apps can give you a general idea of what types of IAPs are common in your app category.
A great way to decide how to price your IAPs is by researching competitor pricing. By collecting and analyzing data on how similar apps choose to price their offers, you can get a better understanding of what users are typically willing to spend on. When it comes to pricing your own IAPs, you can either match your competitors, price higher for a higher perceived value, or lower to gain a competitive edge.
Researching mobile app reports can also help you gauge what kind of pricing is common within the industry. Making your offers too expensive can make them feel inaccessible to many potential spenders, but pricing them too low can impact revenue. According to Unity’s 2023 Mobile Growth and Monetization report20, the sweet spot for converting first-time spenders is $1.01–5.00. This price range keeps offers enticing, yet attainable to most app users, and is a good starting point when pricing your IAPs.
One of the most important ways to figure out how your IAPs should be priced is knowing just how much your users are willing to spend. With only 7.1% of iOS users and 4.6% of Android users2 making at least one in-app purchase per month, it’s crucial to make your offers feel accessible to the widest range of users possible.
Most users spend in small amounts, with the average spend per user per app being $1.08 on iOS and $0.43 on Android2. Offering your users lower-priced IAPs could make them more likely to spend, especially if they feel that the value of the offer outweighs the cost.
Analyzing your users’ behavior – their spend habits, usage patterns, wants, and desires – also allows you to personalize offers to them. According to our 2024 Mobile Gaming Spender report, 40% of mobile gamers indicate that they would be influenced to spend more if given personalized offers.
Pricing your IAPs is an ongoing process, and conducting A/B tests is a great way to figure out what works and what doesn’t. Playing around with the values of different offers or bundling items together can give insights into what users are willing to spend on, where they find value, and what will garner the highest return on investment (ROI).
Testing the placements of your IAP offers is equally important for refining your strategies. Users might be more inclined to spend at specific checkpoints in their app journey, such as after a lesson, in between workouts, or upon losing a difficult level. Introducing users to IAP offers at these checkpoints can make all the difference in converting them to spenders.
Developing a successful IAP strategy in your mobile app can be a great source of revenue, if done correctly. With an already small percentage of users being willing to spend in apps, making sure your offers are aligned with user expectations is crucial.
Here are a few things to keep in mind when implementing IAP into your app:
If you’re looking for a loyalty-driven monetization solution for your app, then check out LoyaltyPlay – our new gaming reward hub that puts the power of play-and-earn in your hands.
And for mobile game publishers looking to build long-term loyalty, Mistplay’s loyalty platform has got you covered. By partnering with our leading UA and engagement solution, you can unlock the full potential of player loyalty on both Android and iOS. Find out how publishers like PLAYLINKS have boosted their D7 ROAS by 36% with the help of Mistplay – and contact us today to see how you can unlock the power of user loyalty.
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