How much direct-to-consumer revenue are mobile games publishers making?

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Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve all heard about the opportunities in direct-to-consumer strategies.

That’s especially thanks to US court rulings against the App Store and Google Play (pending appeals of course). Meanwhile, other regulatory action around the world, like the EU’s Digital Markets Act, the UK’s CMA and Japan’s FTC, is also putting pressure on the mobile platform holders.

But how much are developers and publishers really making from DTC? We took a look at the recently disclosed data to find out.

Playtika just announced its ambitious long-term plans to raise its DTC revenue share target from 30% to 40%. The casual and casino games publisher said DTC sales had increased by 1.3% year-over-year to $175.9 million in Q2 2025. During the quarter, 25.3% of the company’s revenue came from its web stores – which was down from 27.7% in Q2 2024 and 25.4% in Q1 2025.

That’s actually its lowest over the past year, but it’s telling where Playtika believes the wind is blowing.

MTG, meanwhile, said DTC revenue, including browser, accounted for 24% of sales in Q2 2025, up from 19% the year prior. It’s worth mentioning the move to acquire Raid: Shadow Legends developer Plarium, which could have impacted this growth. Meanwhile, MTG highlighted an increasing proportion of revenue from the newly introduced Warhammer 40,000: Tacticus web store, developed by Snowprint Studios.

Stillfront Group said DTC now accounts for 39% of total net revenue, up from 34% in Q2 2024.

Casino games developer SciPlay recently called out growth in its DTC stores, with approximately 18% ($35m) of Q2 sales emanating from its platform.

Runway for growth

Elsewhere, while EA and Zynga parent company Take-Two didn’t pull out DTC mobile sales specifically, both made statements on the opportunities opening up. Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick said the company is focusing on building its DTC business and he sees “ample runway for further growth in this area” following recent court rulings. Meanwhile, EA’s CEO and CFO alluded to plans to expand in this area.

It’s worth noting previous Q1 earnings from other companies, too. Ten Square games said that its TSG Store exceeded 19% of total bookings in March, with Fishing Clash surpassing 26% of sales from its own store during the same month. Huuuge Games, meanwhile, claimed 20% of total revenue in Q1 came from DTC, reaching 21.5% in April.

The data points to clear moves by the world’s top developers and publishers to drastically reduce their 30% fees paid to Apple and Google. You might be wondering: Why isn’t even more revenue going to web stores? Of course, global regulation is taking place on a per country basis at differing paces based on government regulation and judicial decisions.

AppLovin CEO Adam Foroughi said he believes the effects of recent landmark rulings will take longer than people might think, as large companies “tend to move really slowly and tend to operate in fear of the big platforms”. However, he said in one to two years the move to DTC could lead to a “material impact” on businesses.

Exactly how drastic this shift ends up depends on how lawmakers view attempts to move some fees from payments to store features, which Apple is trying in the EU. But whatever happens, the industry is not going back.

Learn more about DTC opportunities at Pocket Gamer Connects.