Do you know the market share for the gaming mobile apps sector is expected to reach the $100 billion mark by 2024? The pandemic was the driving force behind the increasing hype of mobile games among users, and the US market was capable of witnessing a total revenue of $41.7 billion in just 2024.
The unprecedented rise of gaming apps has made them one of the most sought-after business ventures for significant enterprises and startups.
Now, to highlight the growing popularity of gaming apps, let us offer you some valuable insights:
- There are a total of 25% and 21% of mobile game downloads over iOS and Android platforms, respectively
- Gaming apps take up 43% of the total usage of smartphones
- More than 62% of users install a gaming app on their smartphone within a week of completing the purchase
- 78% of the Android platform users download gaming apps on their phones
- There are more than 2.2 billion active mobile game users across the world
- 57.9% of users prefer puzzle games more than any other genre
Now, all these statistics can help you understand the increasing inclination of users for mobile games and how it is the most lucrative business option to dive into if you wish to achieve a guaranteed ROI.
This article will help you understand the cost of developing a gaming app in 2024 and the various factors that can impact the price. In addition, we will look at the multiple ways you can earn money from your gaming app and cater to a constant revenue stream.
So, without further ado, let us first start with comprehending the cost of development for gaming apps. If you wish to get an exact price of development based on your custom requirements, a dedicated game app development company can help put things into perspective while timing your budget as per the pre-technicalities.
Understanding the Cost of Developing a Gaming App in 2024
To give you a brief idea, the cost of developing a mobile gaming app in 2024 can vary between $50,000 to $150,000, depending on various factors like the hourly rate of development, the app’s UI/UX design, the coding process, size of the development team, etc. All these factors can directly impact your overall budget for development.
Since estimating the exact cost of development is a daunting task and requires professional expertise and several other considerations to be mapped out, the overall complexity of the app can offer you the estimated cost and the development time frame.
Simply put, the more complex the app, the higher its development cost will be. Now, let us try and offer you the estimated cost for gaming app development based on multiple app complexities.
| Gaming App Type | Estimated Cost | Time Frame |
| Simple App | $50,000 to $65,000 | 3 to 6 months |
| Moderately Complex App | $70,000 to $95,000 | 6 to 8 months |
| Highly Complex App | $100,000 to $150,000 | 9+ months |
Moving on to the other factors that affect the cost of development, let us now discuss them in detail below:
1. UI/UX design
The UI/UX design of the app is the most critical factor determining your gaming app’s overall success. To increase user engagement and retention of the app, a seamless UI/UX design is unavoidable. Since designing the gaming app’s prototype as per the various design requirements and animations requires multiple testing procedures to be carried out, the cost of development can vary.
2. App’s Platform
The underlying platform of the gaming app also directly impacts the development cost. For instance, you can choose either an iOS or Android platform for your app. Using the former usually leads to less development time. Still, the requirement for stringent testing procedures can sneak up on the developers. To keep the budget optimized, it is usually recommended to develop your gaming app for a single platform first and then switch to a cross-platform app after it gains traction in the market.
3. Location of the app development company
The location of the app development company further affects the overall budget for development as well. For instance, developers’ hourly rates in regions like Asia or Africa are comparatively lower than in the US or UK. Here is the estimated hourly cost of developers as per various regions:
| Region | Hourly Rate of Development |
| US | $100-$120 |
| Western Europe | $85-$95 |
| Australia | $65-$80 |
| Eastern Europe | $50-$55 |
| Asia | $25-$45 |
4. Team Size
The hired team size usually relatively impacts the cost of developing a gaming app. For example, if you wish to hire freelancers for your project, the development cost will be comparatively less, but they won’t be able to offer you solid technical expertise. On the other hand, outsourcing a dedicated app development agency can help you optimize costs while leveraging their experience and knowledge.
The minimum team requirements to create a gaming app:
- 1 project manager
- 2 business analysts
- 2 frontend developers
- 3 backend developers
- 2 designers
- 1-2 quality assurance analyst
5. Tech Stack and Feature List
The technology to be implemented in the gaming app, as well as the feature list to be integrated, directly impacts the cost of development. For instance, a top-rated gaming app will offer a seamless experience to its target audience on every other platform, while the additional features will keep them hooked to your app.
Now that you have a clear insight into the various factors that can affect the cost of developing a gaming app, let us move ahead and share details on how you can make money from your gaming app.
How to Earn Money from Your Gaming App: Understanding the Monetization Strategies:
There are a number of ways by which you can make money from your gaming app and increase your overall business revenue. Let us now discuss them in detail below:
1. Subscription:
A subscription-based monetization model is pretty straightforward and one of gaming app organizations’ most sought-after revenue streams. You can charge the users a suitable amount of fee to access your app. The users can further choose to buy subscriptions on a quarterly, monthly, or yearly basis as per their requirements.
2. Advertisements
Another monetization strategy that can help you increase your business revenue is advertisements. You can offer your app as a platform for displaying ads and charge a fee for the duration of the app to be displayed and as per the type of advertisement.
3. In-App Purchases
One of the most suitable revenue streams that can help you increase your ROI as well as make way for better engagement is offering in-app purchases. The users can purchase various tools and figurines while playing your gaming app and jump to a new level with their new avatars.
Conclusion
The cost of developing a gaming app depends on a number of factors, as well as the features you wish to implement.
In the end, it all boils down to how an app development organization can help you sort all the necessities out based on your business requirements while offering you a robust gaming app that is capable of standing out in this competitive ecosystem.
