Mobile Web Shops: The Great Platform Unbundling

The mobile gaming industry's most fundamental assumption, that Apple and Google control the money, has been crumbling before our eyes. Three years after Epic's first shot at Apple, and two years since regulatory momentum began to accelerate, mobile web shops have evolved from an experimental curiosity to a competitive necessity and standard. 72% of top-grossing mobile games now operate web shops, with leading publishers capturing 25-50% of total revenue through direct-to-consumer channels (Appcharge). The 30% platform tax is not disappearing overnight, but for the first time since the App Store launched, developers have real alternatives that actually work.The trickle-down effects of web shops have further-reaching implications than avoiding Apple's and Google’s 30% tax. The infrastructure has matured to the point where web shops often outperform platform stores in terms of user experience, personalization, and conversion rates.This week, we will be taking a closer look at the tech stacks of these web shops, benchmarking the growth and success of the category winners, and highlighting just how much more juice there is to squeeze out of this new payment paradigm.

‍Tearing Down the Wall: Brick by Brick

‍The path to web shop viability required regulatory enforcement, technical maturation, and consumer acceptance aligning; by 2025, that moment has arrived.

The First Chisel by South Korea (2021-2022): South Korea fired the first shot in late 2021, with South Korea’s National Assembly passing an amendment to the Telecommunications Business Act that explicitly prohibited Apple and Google from requiring developers to use their proprietary payment systems for in-app purchases. This move directly challenged the 30% “app tax” and opened the app ecosystem for alternative payment options. Apple's initial response (a 27% "link tax" and commission that developers using alternatives must pay to Apple, barely different from their original 30%) seemed designed to kill adoption while claiming compliance. But this regulatory toe-in-the-water had unintended consequences: it forced the first wave of serious technical infrastructure development as payment processors scrambled to build compliant solutions.

‍Momentum Builds, Championed by Europe (2023): In September 2023, the EU formally designated Apple and Google as “gatekeepers” under the Digital Markets Act (DMA), introducing strict new rules to open up app ecosystems. These gatekeepers were required to allow third-party app stores, alternative payment methods, and direct offers outside their platforms. This triggered rapid changes by platform holders and galvanized developers (like Epic Games), who quickly began building alternative storefronts and intensified collective pressure to ensure compliance, resulting in a permanent shift in Europe’s market power and inspiring similar regulatory action worldwide.

‍A Breakthrough (2024): Enabled by the DMA, the Epic Games Store officially launched on Android worldwide and on iOS for users in the EU in August (WIRED). This immediately reinstated Fortnite, Rocket League Sideswipe, and Fall Guys to millions of mobile devices after years of absence due to Apple and Google’s restrictive payment policies and legal battles. By June 2025, Epic Games Store had reached 40 million installs and was rapidly adding third-party titles, offering true cross-platform access and fairer revenue sharing for developers. Suddenly, technical infrastructure and developer tools that had been quietly building momentum in the background now had a massive market and real consumer demand to serve, turning regulatory theory into industry-wide momentum.

‍Zero-Fee Linking - The Final Nail in the Coffin (2025): The decisive moment came in April 2025 when a U.S. federal judge ruled Apple in "willful violation" of previous orders and mandated zero-fee linking to external payment systems. Suddenly, what had been an EU-only regulatory experiment became a global reality. When Apple avoided a €500 million EU fine in June by accepting broader DMA compliance requirements, the message became clear: platform resistance was futile.

The Infrastructure Revolution Nobody Saw Coming

The payment processing challenge that once seemed insurmountable has been systematically solved:

• Localization: Modern web shop platforms handle multi-currency support, localized payment methods, and PCI compliance automatically.
• Fraud prevention: Machine learning models have been implemented to reduce chargeback rates.
• Cross-platform synchronization: Leading solutions now offer real-time inventory updates, unified catalogs that reflect all in-game offers, and authentication systems that minimize user friction. Players can make a purchase on mobile web and see it immediately appear in their console or PC game, eliminating the fragmented experience that once made web shops feel like second-class alternatives.

In addition to these key infrastructure improvements, processing fees typically cost developers 5-10% compared to platform stores' typical 15-30%, creating the fundamental economic incentive that makes everything else possible (GameMakers).

Follow the Money: Who is Winning and Why

‍Publishers with mature web shop operations have gained a 10-15% revenue advantage over platform-dependent competitors, translating to a 40-60% profit increase that creates sustainable advantages in user acquisition bidding wars (GameMakers). However, some observable characteristics explain why some publishers are succeeding while others struggle: genre characteristics, average revenue per user (ARPU), and operational capabilities determine success more than regulatory environment or technical sophistication.

‍Genre: According to Appcharge, over 72% of top-grossing games operate a web store. By genre, social casino games lead with 100% adoption rates among top performers, leveraging high ARPU and VIP-focused monetization that makes additional checkout friction irrelevant to their core audience. Strategy games follow at an 80% adoption rate, then action games at 75%. These genres share longer session lengths, higher transaction values, and engaged player bases willing to navigate additional steps for perceived benefits.

Conversely, casual games have only achieved a ~30% adoption rate. This is explainable just by looking at the user experience. The friction of routing users out-of-app conflicts with casual gaming's core promise of immediate gratification and low-friction engagement. High-volume, low-value purchases that drive casual monetization suffer most from additional checkout steps—a reminder that web shops are not universally beneficial.

‍Company size: The size of the publisher has also affected adoption timelines. Scopely (Marvel Strike Force, Monopoly GO!), Supercell (Clash of Clans, Brawl Stars), and King (Candy Crush Saga) leveraged existing customer service infrastructure and technical resources as early adopters in 2023 and early 2024. Studios like Century Games, Playrix, FUNFLY, and Dream Games accelerated web shop adoption after the DMA enforcement date in 2024, typically opting for third-party platforms like Xsolla and Appcharge rather than building solutions in-house due to cost and compliance needs (Morning Star). Indie developers have faced steeper adoption barriers due to compliance complexity and customer service requirements, though turnkey solutions are rapidly lowering these barriers.

‍Geography: Due to regulation, geography has also affected rollout timing and location. EU-based publishers show the highest adoption rates, followed by South Korean developers benefiting from early regulatory changes (Mobidictum). NA publishers accelerated adoption following April 2025 court rulings, while Chinese publishers remain constrained by domestic platform policies (though international versions of their games increasingly feature web shops).

Measuring Success of Public Winners

‍There are several large, public gaming companies that have reported the success of shifting their revenues to webshops, also known as direct-to-consumer (DTC):

• 39% of Stillfront Group’s total net revenue came from DTC in Q2 2025
• 25% of Playtika’s revenue came from DTC in Q2 2025 (targeting 40%)
• 24% of Modern Times Group’s revenue came from DTC (including browser) in Q2 2025
• 20% of Huuuge Games’ total revenue came from DTC in Q1 2025
• 18% of SciPlay’s total revenue came from DTC in Q2 2025

While macro headwinds have suppressed mobile gaming revenues across the industry, the shift toward DTC (and thus, higher net margins) reduces this pain in the near term. Reducing payment gateway fees from 30% down to 5-10% gives enough wiggle room to allow for a 22-26% drop in gross revenue before net revenue suffers.

Trickle-down Effects

‍We believe that this change in the mobile payments landscape has broader implications for the gaming industry:

1. Web is not the next big opportunity in games: We have long been proponents of the opportunity that web apps (PWAs) and web-based distribution could have offered the gaming industry (PWAs, The Web: Tearing Down the Walled Garden). However, in hindsight, these two things were “Band-Aids” to try to patch an acute problem: the 30% tax. With this problem now mitigated, there is significantly less urgency to usher in a new major distribution channel for mobile. While the web continues to tout benefits for developers such as “build once, distribute everywhere” (vs developing and maintaining two different native apps for Apple and Google) and for consumers (instant play and “play anywhere”), we do not believe these problems are enough to warrant a paradigm shift in how consumers discover and play/use games and applications. Enabling developers to take advantage of both access to lower-level hardware as a native app (more performant) and take as much of the revenue pie as possible gives them the “best of both worlds.”
2. Publishers are taking on more risk: By handling payments themselves, developers are now taking over responsibility for direct customer relationships and responsibilities previously handled by platform holders, such as data protection compliance (GDPR, CCPA), age verification for games, fraud prevention, and handling refunds.

Takeaway: As web shops move from regulatory curiosity to industry standard, the opportunity for game developers has never been greater—but so too are the responsibilities. The new web shop paradigm promises higher margins, operational independence, and richer direct-to-consumer relationships. However, it also introduces new operational and compliance burdens previously shielded by platform gatekeepers. Ultimately, the winners will not be those who merely adopt web shops, but those who harness this new infrastructure to deliver genuinely better experiences for both players and businesses—balancing efficiency, trust, and innovation. The path forward will reward those who can embrace these tools to not only recapture revenue but reimagine what value looks like in a world where the walls are finally coming down.