Coming from the Indian market (download capital), where hitting 1M/10M downloads is common and it’s cheap (on mobile). Getting a payer is not (on all platform) and reasons why having your game winning payers in US/CA/EU defines your success. Ofc there are exceptions in IN (as in every market) with BGMI, FreeFire, Teen Patti Gold…. (they account 40+% of entire IAP spend)
2 questions worth reviewing:
▸ Are Tier2 players good enough on their own?
▸ Is Tier2 a backup for Geo rev concentration?
Are Tier2 players good enough?: rev per player stat in 2026
NA $227
EU $81
APAC $52
LATAM $24
MEA $13
NA is 7% of the world’s players and accounts 27% of rev, EU is $81.
Run the per-payer gap for your geo, install vs rev ratio is heavily concentrated towards in Tier1.
Weigh if you acquire a payer from this region, what is that payer actually worth?
is Tier2 a backup?: Rev per payer for APAC region
South Korea ~$350
JP $240
China $80
IN $2
IN is 31% of APAC players and accounts for 1.3% of rev to APAC.
Treating China as an EU equivalent is madness, the numbers are comparable. The access is not, shipping your game to China means ISBN license, local partner, new store landscape, approval process... Its is the H1B of game launches, the quota decides not your product.
Korea and JP earns more than NA, both are RPG-led market, with their own genre preference. For Casual/Hybrid these markets are not a substitute for NA and EU.
Having sat on both sides pitching western studios from Bangalore, and helping IN games build for desi players (who cannot fund). The lesson is “Always weigh if you acquire a payer from this region, what is that payer actually worth it”.
tCARe, CARtic P
iCartic.com