How games make money — a revenue map from 12 deep dives
From gacha to merge, survival and match-3, we synthesized 12 deep dives. Games open wallets in roughly six ways — and each has a different relationship with ‘satisfaction.’
The last note asked, with six gacha titles, ‘where to bet content.’ Having widened the genres, we ask again — how do games make money, and how does that method clash with player satisfaction?
Satisfaction × monetization — in four boxes
The x-axis is monetization (soft → aggressive), the y-axis recent satisfaction (high → low). High revenue doesn't mean high satisfaction.
High revenue isn't high satisfaction — they're separate axes.
Six revenue models
Where gacha sits
The six gacha titles sit on a slightly different axis. Like NIKKE and Arknights, they hold on a broad fanbase's affection, and satisfaction is generally upper-mid. Even when they fall, the cause comes from outside the content — the device (Zenless), operations (Epic Seven), the pull system (Blue Archive). Where casual shaves satisfaction with monetization design, gacha earns it with affection and loses it to accidents.
What happened next — only half the map showed up on the charts
This note was written in August 2026. Since then we have taken the Apple grossing charts once a week, five times, and counted how many of five readings × three countries = fifteen cells each of the six mapped titles occupied.
| The six revenue models | cells in the top 15 | where |
|---|---|---|
| Royal Match광고형 | 15 / 15 | kr·us·jp |
| Gossip Harbor혼합형 | 15 / 15 | kr·us·jp |
| Whiteout Survival압박형 | 15 / 15 | kr·us·jp |
| Candy Crush Saga신뢰형 | 5 / 15 | us |
| MONOPOLY GO!습관형 | 5 / 15 | us |
| Free Fire스케일형 | 4 / 15 | us |
The top three are all fifteen — inside the top 15 in all three countries at every reading. The bottom three are smaller numbers, and all of them are the US. It is not the model that differs; it is the country.
The seven gacha titles this note set on a different axis came to 2 cells out of 105 — Star Rail, twice, in Japan. This note said “high revenue does not mean high satisfaction.” Five more readings later, one more line can be added: high satisfaction does not mean you appear on the grossing chart either.
Six non-gacha titles: 59 of 90 cells. Seven gacha titles: 2 of 105.
Cells the map did not have — three more deep dives
Since this note, the deep dives have grown to 15. The three added since ask not how a game earns but what holds a place.
If the revenue models mapped how a game opens a wallet, these three map what leaves the chart. Whether it is the publisher, the genre or a single game differs every time.
Limits — Apple publishes only to 15th place, so we cannot see below it, and we read three countries. Of the same 225 cells, twelve entries could not be resolved to a name.