In July, the average cost of in-app purchases (IAPs) jumped 40% year over year (YoY) on the iOS App Store (presumably as a result of privacy improvements), but only by 9% on the Google Play store. People are witnessing price increases practically everywhere, citing data from app intelligence company Apptopia, with the consumer price index in the US rising 8.5% YoY.
“The rise on iOS comes much before inflation (not the case for Google Play) hit hard in 2022, indicating publishers may be reacting to increased effective cost per install (ECPI) due to Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) policies making it more expensive to acquire users,” said the Apptopia report.
IAPs for single purchases climbed significantly more than those for monthly or yearly purchases, it turns out.
While annual and monthly IAPs saw only a 19% increase in price, the average price of iOS single purchase IAPs climbed by 36% in July.
“Publishers are trying to present a value and hook customers for longer to cut down on acquisition costs,” said Adam Blacker, VP, of Insights.
Books appeared in both iOS and Google Play’s top 5 list of price rises, with some categories experiencing bigger price increases on average than others. On the App Store, navigation had a high rating of 88% while social networking had a terrible rating of -2%. Food and drink had a 50% market share on Google Play, whereas weather had a -14% market share.
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