F2P whales are 66% male, claims survey

A new survey by EEDAR has found that men are twice as likely as women to rank in the top five per cent of spenders on mobile games.

“Whales” are a highly sought-after demographic within free-to-play markets, but this study suggests that big spenders aren’t just mobile gamers, they’re core gamers who play mobile games as well.

As reported by GamesIndustry International, EEDAR’s data shows that men account for 66 per cent of whales.

While women account for 56 per cent of all mobile gamers, they are less likely to reach for their wallets, accounting for only 47 per cent of paying mobile gamers, and form 65 per cent of the population of non-paying players.

The report didn’t say why women were less likely to pay, and it remains to be seen if the gender gap is because women are more cautious about mobile spending or if they simply don’t find the content as engaging.

Whales are also part of a younger demographic, with an average age of 30.2 years as compared with 32.5 for paying and 36.6 for non-paying mobile gamers.

Perhaps the survey’s most interesting finding was that whales spent more time playing consoles and handheld games than other mobile gamers; this is surprising for some because it is often assumed that mobile gaming is stealing rather than sharing consumers.

"While the report focuses solely on mobile gamers and their playing habits, it is a fair statement that a portion of our top mobile spenders are part of the core console gaming community," said EEDAR’s Jesse Divnich.

Divnich says this shouldn’t actually be a surprise, since core gamers are used to paying higher prices for games.

"It’s not surprising. Core gamers have been conditioned to spend money on traditional games and it is fair to assume this habit carries with them into to other gaming verticals,” he explained.

“To this crowd, spending $1.99 to break a few jelly blocks in Candy Crush Saga is worth the purchase price. Or even $50+ is easily justifiable. They likely view it as an investment, as most hobbyists do."