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A free scan shows the junk files, broken settings and background clutter dragging Windows down - then fixes them in one click.Free scan · Windows 10 & 11Gaming companies can pursue growth without abandoning app stores: keep their reach and discovery while adding direct-to-consumer (DTC) sales, stronger player relationships, and other ways to sustain engagement. The combination is an industry strategy, not a proven formula for every game. Its success depends on balancing reach, margin, trust, player experience, and the demands of operating across markets and platforms.
What “hybrid” means in gaming
In GamesBeat’s coverage of its 2025 summit, “hybrid” meant adding routes to players rather than replacing app stores. Xsolla chief strategy officer Chris Hewish described it as expanding a business to embrace both app-store distribution and direct-to-consumer sales. The distinction matters: app stores can help a game reach players and make purchasing familiar, while a developer-owned webstore can give a studio more control over offers and a more direct relationship with buyers.
The word also describes other combinations in gaming. A publisher might mix direct purchases with advertising, or a service might combine cloud access with a subscription bundle. Those approaches overlap, but they are not the same strategy as app-store distribution plus DTC.
How can game companies grow revenue without abandoning app stores?
The central trade-off is between platform reach and direct control. App stores can provide discovery, distribution scale, familiar payment flows, and privacy assurances. A webstore may give a developer more flexibility over pricing, offers, and the customer relationship, with the possibility of better margins. But it also requires the studio to attract buyers to the store and earn their trust. The sources do not establish a universal fee comparison or a guaranteed net-margin gain.
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| Route | Potential advantage | Cost or limitation to weigh |
|---|---|---|
| App-store sales | Distribution reach, discoverability, and familiar purchasing | Less control over the sales environment and player relationship |
| Developer-owned webstore | More control over offers, pricing, and direct player relationships; potential margin opportunity | The studio must bring players to the store and operate a trustworthy buying experience |
Hewish told GamesBeat that companies expanding beyond app stores were seeing an average of 14–16% additional revenue on top of what they already made. That is his account of results discussed at GamesBeat Summit 2025, not a universal or independently documented causal estimate: the GamesBeat article did not publish the underlying methodology. It should not be read as a forecast for a particular studio.
There is evidence that some players use developer-owned stores. Boston Consulting Group’s 2025 Global Gaming Survey, based on 2,972 respondents fielded July 9–18, 2025, found that 33% of adult gamers and 40% of teens had made at least one purchase from a developer-owned webstore. That measures whether respondents had ever purchased, not how often they buy or how much revenue a store generates.
Why the mix matters more than a simple switch
GamesBeat’s summit discussion also reported that in-app purchase revenue grew 4% year over year in 2024 and exceeded $80 billion. Anthony Bartolacci, Sensor Tower chief strategy officer, was the source of that figure as quoted by GamesBeat in 2025. It is a 2024 market figure, not a current-year total. The scale helps explain why the strategic question is how to add routes and strengthen a game business, rather than assuming app-store sales are obsolete.
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BCG estimated nearly $130 billion in mobile in-app purchases for 2025 in its 2025 report. That was an estimate, not audited realized revenue. In a separate long-range projection, PwC projected total video-game revenue of $262 billion in 2023 rising to $312 billion in 2027; the publication date for that projection is not established here, so it should be treated as a forecast made at an unspecified time, not a current measurement.
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A workable strategy weighs five questions together:
- Reach versus relationship: Which channel introduces new players, and which gives the studio a direct way to communicate with existing ones?
- Margin versus operating burden: Would potential control over sales justify the cost of store operations, customer support, payments, and trust-building?
- Revenue versus retention: Will an offer or monetization change support continued play, or risk undermining the experience?
- Global scale versus local fit: Do store, pricing, content, and payment choices suit the market and genre?
- Platform distribution versus continuity: Can players move between devices or access options without fragmenting the experience?
These are decision criteria, not evidence that any one channel will outperform another. App-store policies and regulatory conditions vary by jurisdiction and can change; the cited sources do not settle current legal requirements market by market.
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How live operations keep older games competitive
Distribution is only one part of the growth picture. GamesBeat reported in 2025 that games on the market for more than six years accounted for over 50% of in-app purchase revenue at the time. The summit discussion credited ongoing live operations—such as new competitions, modes, and experiences—with helping established games keep players engaged.
For a studio, that points to a strategic choice: continue investing in a game after launch when it can offer meaningful reasons to return. Live updates can support retention and monetization, but the figure does not show that age alone produces revenue or that every older title can be revived. The relevant question is whether the game has an audience and a credible cadence of content that serves it.
Growth beyond the largest established markets
GamesBeat’s summit coverage identified emerging regions as another growth opportunity, while emphasizing local understanding. Global availability does not guarantee local fit: studios need to consider market conditions, player expectations, genre, pricing, and the ways people discover and pay for games. The source provides no territory-by-territory forecast or ranking, so it does not support naming a single best region.
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Local adaptation also intersects with the channel mix. A webstore, app-store listing, or live event may work differently depending on where players are and how they access games. Treat market entry as a set of local decisions, not a one-size-fits-all rollout.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Cloud, subscriptions, creators, and other hybrid models
BCG’s 2025 report describes a broader set of changes in how games are accessed and monetized: cloud gaming, multigame subscriptions, bundled models, user-generated content, new app-store distribution routes, tiered pricing, release windowing, and advertising. It distinguishes cloud-streaming “pure plays,” multigame subscriptions, and hybrid or bundled offers such as Xbox Game Pass. These are options and reported trends, not guaranteed winners.
Access may span cloud and dedicated hardware rather than displacing one with the other. BCG’s report says dedicated hardware will remain relevant as players use multiple devices. In its 2025 survey, 60% of respondents said they had tried cloud gaming, and 80% of those who had tried it reported a positive experience. The second figure applies to the cloud-using subset, not all respondents.
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Creators and user-generated content can also affect engagement and discovery. BCG reported that 55% of surveyed gamers said they would try a new game if their favorite creator switched to it. That is a stated willingness in a survey, not a measured conversion rate. It suggests why creator ecosystems may matter to discovery, while leaving the cost and effectiveness of a specific campaign open.
Where AI fits—and what the evidence does not show
At GamesBeat Summit 2025, Hewish argued that AI should help teams create larger, deeper, and more engaging games rather than simply shrink teams. That is a strategic view, not evidence that AI has already delivered those outcomes across the industry. Globant’s November 18, 2025 release cited a 97% AI-usage figure from Google Cloud’s 2025 Games Report; that figure is attributable to Globant’s release citing Google Cloud, rather than independently verified here.
For a studio weighing AI, the business question is what capability it improves—development workflows, content, or discovery—and whether the change improves the game or its economics without harming quality or trust. The cited material does not establish a specific productivity gain, cost reduction, or return on investment.
A practical way to evaluate a hybrid strategy
- Define the objective. Decide whether the priority is acquisition, repeat engagement, revenue per player, or access across devices; “growth” alone is too vague to guide a channel choice.
- Keep the channel roles clear. Identify what app stores contribute and what a direct store would add, rather than treating DTC as an automatic replacement.
- Test the player experience. Assess whether the offer, payment flow, and communication build trust and fit player expectations. Track engagement as well as sales so a short-term revenue change is not mistaken for a durable improvement.
- Match investment to the game. Consider whether the title has the audience and content plans to support live operations, local adaptation, creator activity, or a new access model.
- Review by market and over time. Rules, platform conditions, and player behavior differ across territories and can change. Reassess the mix as conditions and results develop.
PwC separately recommends a publisher monetization mix that combines direct player purchases with advertising, including opt-in rewarded video, while tracking effects on engagement and revenue metrics. This is a different use of “hybrid” from combining app stores with DTC. It reinforces the need to judge a revenue mix by both its income and its effects on play, rather than treating additional monetization as automatically beneficial.
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