Payment methods – browser games

A change regarding the favourite payment methods of browser gamers occurred last year. In 2019, Polish gamers usually paid for expansions to browser games by SMS Premium (52%). In 2020, the favourite payment method is PayPal with the result of 43% (increase by 8 percentage points YoY). Internet transfers are placed on the second position, similarly as in the previous year (40%, decrease by 9 percentage points YoY). Payments using SMS Premium are selected by 39% of the gamers, which constitutes a decrease by 13 percentage points YoY. BLIK is on the fourth place with 33% of the indications. 30% of the respondents are still happy to pay with credit/debit card, although that result constitutes a decrease when compared to 40% in 2019. Mobile transfers are used by 29% of the respondents and the Paysafecard by 16%.

Chart 1 Base: Respondents who pay for add-ons in games in web browsers N=115
How did you pay for purchases related to online video games in web browsers?
Chart 2 Base: Respondents who pay for add-ons in games in web browsers N=115
Has any of the following ever discouraged you from paying for the online video games?

Resignation from payments for game expansions constitutes a significant problem faced by the producers of browser games. Unfortunately, some of the producers repeatedly make mistakes resulting in resignations from payment. There are five principal reasons for such decisions. The most common is a lack of trust regarding the proposed payment method (37%). Another factor is connected with ignoring the local requirements – no Polish currency constitutes the reason to resign from payment for 35% of the respondents. Because of a high commission collected by telecommunication companies providing mobile payments, some of the game producers do not implement payments using SMS Premium or other mobile payment methods, which causes 30% of the gamers to resign from payments. 27% of the respondents do not trust the virtual currency available in the games and 25% do not accept the lack of translation on the website used to make payments into the Polish language. 19% of the respondents never resigned from making payments in the games.