Part 13. Game Monetization Practice I — The Psychology of Paying Users

Core question: Why did a whale become a whale, and where did that psychology come from?

This Chapter Is Not Only for Games

Parts 13 and 14 are titled “Game Monetization Practice,” but their subject is not limited to game business models.

Among all content forms humanity has created, games are the genre that integrates the widest range of content into a single interactive experience: writing, illustration, music, animation, video, imagery, hair, fashion, characters, objects, equipment, vehicles, ships, buildings, real estate, factions, groups, cities, and worlds. Games render all of this with current technology and fast, high-capacity, expensive hardware while interacting with users in real time. Today, no other single industry handles a comparable range.

That is why the business-model principles developed by games provide such a dense reference for new-business planners. We can examine what model games developed for each content element and apply the logic to another business structure.

Written and text content → web fiction, newsletters, education apps
Quest dialogue, story chapters, and item descriptions are text. Games apply “unlock the next chapter,” “premium story choices,” and “wait for free or pay now” to that text. Web fiction such as KakaoPage’s “Wait or Pay,” newsletter subscriptions, and chapter unlocks in education apps follow the same logic. When payment is connected to text, the game industry’s story-unlock model is a direct reference.

Illustration and image content → digital art, merchandise, icon subscriptions
Character illustrations, skin designs, and UI elements are images. As paid products they become skin sales, limited art packages, and emoji sets. Kakao emoji sales share the structure of game-skin monetization. An artist selling limited prints or digital downloads of character art uses the same structure.

Music content → OST subscriptions, music DLC, collaboration tracks
A game soundtrack is a music product. Beat Saber sold artist-specific music packs as DLC, as discussed in Part 12, and rhythm games landed on the habit-space of music subscriptions. In music businesses, the design choice among per-track sales, packs, and subscriptions follows the same logic as game DLC.

Animation and character content → VTubers, virtual IP, animation fandoms
Game cutscenes, animation, and motion are character assets. VTubers turned such assets into an independent business. Hololive and Nijisanji combine game-character IP with idol fandom. Character commerce based on animation IP—mini figures, merchandise, and character licensing—applies the monetization structure of game-character IP outside games.

Video and cinematic content → interactive video, game-like OTT
High-quality game cinematics and in-game video can rival films. Combined with OTT, they become interactive productions with choices, such as Netflix’s Black Mirror: Bandersnatch. Game payment-point design—“you need premium access to make this choice”—can be transplanted directly into an interactive-video model.

Hair and fashion content → avatar fashion, virtual fashion, physical merchandise
Character hairstyles and clothing skins are fashion. Users designing and selling avatar clothes in ZEPETO and Roblox create an avatar-fashion economy. Nike and Gucci selling virtual clothing in Roblox and Fortnite place physical fashion brands on the cosmetic model developed by games. Virtual fashion weeks and digital dresses follow this current.

Object and equipment content → equipment subscriptions, equipment as a service
Weapons, armor, and mounts are objects with usable functions. Transplanted into the physical world, manufacturers sell performance rather than equipment: Rolls-Royce’s Power by the Hour charges for flight hours instead of selling engines, while other models charge by cultivated area rather than selling farm machinery. The game concept of paying for use moves into physical equipment industries.

Vehicle, ship, and building content → digital twins, space subscriptions
Racing, shipbuilding, and construction simulations are digital replicas of physical assets—digital twins. Construction sites already use game engines such as Unreal and Unity for simulation. Metaverse real estate and virtual-space rental use the same logic. The game unlock model—“pay admission to enter this space”—is applied to a spatial business.

Faction and group content → community memberships, DAOs
Guilds, clans, and factions are voluntarily formed groups. Their members invest resources toward a shared goal, such as winning a war or clearing a raid. Physical-world applications include community memberships, DAOs whose members allocate resources through votes, and fan-club group purchases and investments. The underlying structure is “belong to a group and pay for its activity.”

City and world content → metaverses, platform economies
An open world and its server system form a virtual world with an economy: Roblox’s Robux, Fortnite Creative, and Minecraft servers. This “economy inside a world” is what metaverse platforms seek to build. A business model exists in every relationship among those who design the world, trade inside it, visit it, and advertise in it.

Because games integrate all these elements into one experience, game business models are references for every kind of interactive content and new business. The psychology of paying users, payment-point design, and metric analysis in Parts 13 and 14 should be read in this context. You need not work at a game company or make a game; the way to read these parts is to ask how their principles apply to your own business.

Same Game, Different Spending

Two people play the same game.

One spends an average of 300,000 won a month for three years. When a limited gacha banner appears, the player pulls all the way to pity, routinely buys the battle pass, buys a starter pack each season, and immediately tops up resources when a guild battle creates a shortage. The three-year total exceeds ten million won.

The other person plays the same game for three years without paying once.

They face the same content, screen, and gacha banner. One pays and the other does not.

Where does the difference come from?

Did the game’s design create it, or did something the person already carried from outside the game create it?

Part 13 follows this question. It is not about how a game designs payment. It examines where the psychology of the person who pays originates.

Four Types of Paying Users — Whales, Dolphins, Minnows, and Non-payers

The game industry divides users into four broad payment groups. The terminology came from casinos.

Casinos called high-stakes bettors “whales,” based on the observation that a small number of them generated a large share of casino revenue. The English Wikipedia entry for “high roller” notes that casinos may call people who wager extremely large sums whales or cheetahs. The term moved into mobile games in the early 2010s as the F2P market formed. Market analysts such as Sensor Tower and Newzoo used the categories in reports, while companies such as Machine Zone and Chinese mobile-game studios designed VIP tiers and events by user segment. The terms became industry standards.

The shares and revenue contributions below are estimates for top-grossing mobile games. Variation by genre is large: total payer conversion ranges from roughly 1–2 percent in hypercasual games to the teens in MMORPGs. Part 14 covers benchmarks by genre.

Whale

A whale spends hundreds of thousands of won or more per month on average. Whales may account for only 0.1–0.2 percent of all users yet often generate more than half of total revenue.

Their payment habits originate in collecting culture and VIP consumption culture. Collectors tend to stop calculating cost when completing a set of figures, cards, or limited merchandise. The motive of “set completion” numbs price sensitivity. Just as luxury-brand VIP programs confer special treatment, top-tier game content becomes status inside the game space. During Japan’s 2012 controversy over complete gacha, television reports featured users spending more than one million yen per month on social games—before pity systems existed.

What whales want is often more than a powerful character. Their goal is the state of “being among the best in this game.” Structurally, this resembles investing in the highest-tier products of a luxury brand.

Dolphin

A dolphin consistently spends tens to hundreds of thousands of won per month, regularly purchasing battle passes, monthly subscriptions, and small packages. Dolphins are roughly 1–2 percent of users and contribute about 40 percent of revenue.

Their payment habit comes from subscription culture. Once a charge enters the category of “something I pay every month,” it becomes automatic, like a magazine, gym, or OTT subscription that is paid once a month and forgotten. A game battle pass at $9.99–14.99 per season lands exactly in this psychological space. Framing it as “a loss if I do not buy it” resembles the reason people do not cancel Netflix.

Minnow — Low Spender

A minnow makes occasional small payments, usually during a particular event or moment of need. Minnows are roughly 10–15 percent of users but contribute only about 8–10 percent of revenue.

Their habit originates in convenience-store impulse purchases. They have a low threshold for “this much is fine”: a coffee, a snack, or a $0.99 app. They pay within an amount that can be rationalized as small. Conversion occurs when a discounted event package is framed as “available at this price only now.”

Non-payer

Non-payers use the game only for free and represent roughly 85–95 percent of users. They produce no direct revenue, but without them there would be no paying users. They sustain the ecosystem as opponents, teammates, and community members. The industry widely recognizes that one whale cannot exist without hundreds of free users.

Many non-payers are potential payers who have not yet reached their payment threshold. Games with many non-payers can also use advertising models: rewarded ads and interstitial ads sell those users’ time to advertisers.

A Map of Payment Frequency × Amount

Crossing payment frequency with payment amount produces nine patterns.

High-frequency payers

High amount: VIP core
Medium amount: battle-pass type
Low amount: coffee-money type

Medium-frequency payers

High amount: champion type
Medium amount: opportunity type
Low amount: weekly type

Low-frequency payers

High amount: special-occasion type
Medium amount: season-opening type
Low amount: one-and-done type

The traits and payment-habit origins behind each cell follow.

① High frequency, high amount—VIP core: These users spend heavily every week or month. It is habitual consumption in the same psychological space as spending on luxury goods, collecting, or golf. The game has taken the place of that hobby. They are the most important targets of VIP management. Dedicated game masters, personalized event invitations, and thank-you gifts are central to retention.

② High frequency, medium amount—battle-pass type: They spend moderately and often on battle passes, subscriptions, and monthly packages. This is the season-ticket habit and the most predictable, stable revenue group. Payment is closer to a semiautomatic habit than a conscious decision: “When a season starts, I buy the pass.”

③ High frequency, low amount—coffee-money type: They spend small sums daily or frequently on daily packages, small energy refills, or instant purchases instead of rewarded ads. “It costs only a coffee” provides self-justification. Each payment is small, but the monthly total can be substantial.

④ Medium frequency, high amount—champion type: They spend heavily only during major events: limited banners, anniversaries, and PvP season settlements. Without events, there is no payment. Maintaining a short event cycle is a key operational task for this group.

⑤ Medium frequency, medium amount—opportunity type: They spend only when an attractive offer appears, such as a discount package, special event, or time-limited item. They are price-sensitive but respond to opportunity, like shoppers filling carts during a sale.

⑥ Low frequency, high amount—special-occasion type: They spend heavily only on a birthday, raise, bonus season, or another special day. The psychology is “a gift to myself.” A department-store seasonal-sale habit has moved into game events. They pay when the game connects to the day’s special meaning.

⑦ Low frequency, medium amount—season-opening type: They spend once when a new season begins, buying a starter pack or prepurchasing a season pass. It follows the same structure as buying school supplies for a new term. The offer at season opening is decisive.

⑧ Low frequency, low amount—one-and-done type: They paid once but not again. The first-payment experience lowers the second barrier, but no new trigger arrives. They are prime targets for reactivation events such as a “Returning Hero Package.”

⑨ Non-payer: They play without paying but sustain the ecosystem through their activity.

The game economy needs all nine groups. A whale needs a community in which to compete, and non-payers populate that community.

Nine Psychological Drivers of Payment

Nine psychological drivers recur in payer behavior. Games did not invent them; they are longstanding reasons why people spend money.

① Scarcity: The pressure of “now or never” triggers immediate payment: limited items, event countdowns, and “only three left.” It occupies the same psychological space as limited sneakers or luxury collections. Game banners inherit the habit-space that fast fashion cultivated for decades with “this style is available only this season.” Games use scarcity exceptionally well, but other industries created it first.

② Social proof: People want what those around them have: the item worn by the top-ranked player, the strongest guild member’s skin, or the pass used by every teammate. It follows fashion’s formula of “this season’s must-have.” Observations suggest that showing friends’ payment activity in social games can increase conversion among non-payers.

③ Achievement: Users pay to gain the satisfaction of leveling, completing challenges, and climbing rankings more quickly. This extends the habit-space in which effort brings reward—study improves grades, training improves skill, and investment yields returns. Games also let money purchase the reward through time accelerators and experience multipliers.

④ Ownership: This is the desire to make one’s character or space distinctive. The habit of investing in “something of my own” through interiors, clothes, or car customization becomes skin purchasing. Champion skins in League of Legends and character skins in Fortnite make this psychology a primary revenue source. They do not affect play, but express ownership.

⑤ Avoidance: Users pay to avoid inconvenience, waiting, or failure: energy running out, an instant revival near defeat, or ad-free play. The payment is not for something good but to escape something bad, much like insurance. The greater the discomfort, the stronger the avoidance payment. This is why energy systems create the state of “I want to continue now, but I am blocked.”

⑥ Gift: Users pay for others rather than themselves: a parent buying an item for a child, a viewer supporting a favorite streamer, or a player donating resources to guildmates. This is the psychology of holiday and birthday gifts. It was a main driver of AfreecaTV star balloons discussed in Part 11.

⑦ Community: Users pay to belong to a group or support one they already belong to: guild-only items, clan badges, and team skins. It resembles alumni dues and fan-club membership. “For our guild” bypasses calculations of personal benefit.

⑧ Identity: Payment expresses the self-definition “I take this game seriously.” Just as a K-pop fan buys an album for more than listening to music, a whale pays for more than better performance. Payment maintains the self-image of “someone seriously invested in this game.” It is hard to stop because quitting means abandoning part of one’s identity.

⑨ Habit: Payment happens without thought: buy the battle pass when it appears and the starter pack when the season changes. “That is what I always do.” It has the same structure as buying coffee daily or subscribing to a newspaper. This is the most stable and predictable form of payment. Users whose identity and habit payments overlap form the core of true whales.

These nine motives do not act alone. Several often operate in one purchase. A gacha pity banner combines scarcity—the unit appears only now; ownership—I want this character; achievement—I will complete the collection; and identity—I am the kind of person who wants this character. The more motives overlap, the lower payment resistance becomes. This is why a well-designed banner concentrates several motives.

The Psychology of the First Payment — The Foot-in-the-Door Effect

The first payment by a user who has never paid is a turning point.

It is a strong predictor of later behavior. A first-time payer is far more likely than a non-payer to pay again, and small payments tend to lead to larger ones.

Psychology calls this the foot-in-the-door effect: agreeing to a small request makes a person more likely to agree to a larger one. Jonathan Freedman and Scott Fraser demonstrated it in 1966. Homeowners who agreed to display a small “Be a safe driver” sticker were much more likely about two weeks later to accept a large “Drive Carefully” sign in their yard.

Starter packs use this effect. They are small packages discounted 60–80 percent below the usual offer, limited to the first purchase, and priced to minimize resistance—for example, 100 diamonds for 999 won.

Through that purchase, the user enters the self-category “a person who spends money on this game.” The barrier to larger payments falls. A non-payer and someone who has become a payer see the same product differently.

Another factor is the sunk-cost effect. Having already spent money, users continue: “It would be a waste to stop after investing this much.” It resembles betting more to recover casino losses or finally using a nonrefundable annual gym membership. Users who begin paying in games tend to churn less.

Typical first-payment moments include immediately after starting, when a starter pack appears; the first energy depletion, which creates the first friction; the first gacha banner; and the first exposure to competition. Game design places these moments deliberately.

From Non-payer to Payer — Conditions for Conversion

Several conditions commonly convert non-payers into payers.

① Formation of in-game identity: After playing long or investing deeply, users become attached to a character, collect items, and see their name on a ranking. Once “this is my character” creates a sense of ownership, the barrier to paying for it falls. Gacha does not work well on a brand-new player because there is no investment and nothing to lose.

② Competitive pressure: In PvP games, non-payers repeatedly lose to payers. “I could win with a small investment” leads to a first payment. It resembles investing in sports equipment—upgrading a game character like upgrading a tennis racket. This is why pay-to-win structures strongly stimulate competition.

③ Social trigger: A friend starts paying, guild membership requires a tier, or the surrounding atmosphere normalizes payment. The pressure comes from “everyone does it except me.” A friend saying “this package is good” can be more effective than an advertisement.

④ Appearance of a desired item: A wanted character arrives on a banner, or a limited skin appears with a “now only” message. Far more non-payers think “I might pull once if that character ever appears” than actually pay. Payment occurs when that threshold arrives. A collaboration with a favorite IP can draw the first purchase from a longtime non-payer.

Games can design all four conditions. More fundamentally, however, the task is to distinguish people ready to pay from those not yet ready, then make an offer at the moment of readiness.

Payer Composition by Game Genre

Even among F2P games, payer composition differs by genre.

MMORPG: These have the highest whale share. Strong PvP games such as Lineage M and MU Origin sustain payment to become the strongest. Identity and competition operate together, while guilds add community. For more than a decade, a small number of high spenders have supported entire-server revenue in Korean MMORPGs.

Strategy simulation—Clash of Clans, Lords Mobile: Regular medium-to-high spending supports continuous growth and competition. Clan-based PvP strengthens community motivation, and “for our clan” raises individual spending limits.

Casual puzzle—Candy Crush, Anipang: Minnow payments dominate: instant refills after energy depletion and items for hard stages. High spenders are rare, but a vast audience creates revenue through the sum of small payments. Avoidance—the desire to pass a blocked stage quickly—is the main trigger.

Collection and development—Genshin Impact, Pokémon Masters: Gacha centers the collecting motive and concentrated spending to obtain a favorite character. Ownership and scarcity are strong. The greater a user’s emotional connection to a character, the more they spend on its banner.

Sports—FIFA Mobile, NBA Live: These transplant physical sports-card collecting. Users pay to put favorite players on a team. Sports-fandom identity connects directly to payment. Fans accustomed to spending millions of won on physical cards move to digital card packs.

These genre differences show that games do not create payment psychology. It is determined by the existing payment habit-space on which the game lands. MMORPGs occupy collecting, competition, and community at once; casual puzzles land in the space of impulsive low-cost consumption.

Between Whale and Minnow — The Payer Spectrum

An important practical insight is that whales were not whales from the beginning.

Tracing a whale’s payment history usually reveals a small start: a 999-won starter pack, then a 3,300-won small package, a 9,900-won subscription, a 22,000-won medium package, and eventually a limited banner all the way to pity. Some users stop at the small package; others keep climbing.

The difference depends on which of the nine psychological drivers acts most strongly.

Users with strong identity and habit motives do not stop paying. Once the game becomes “my hobby” and payment becomes “a natural expense for that hobby,” meaning matters more than price.

Users driven only by scarcity and competition reduce spending when the stimulus disappears—when a limited event ends or they stop caring about PvP rank.

Operations teams know that cultivating identity is the longest-term revenue strategy. They create characters with stories, servers with histories, and games with anniversaries. The stronger the identity “I am someone who has played this game for years,” the harder it is to leave and the more persistent payment becomes.

Lessons from This Chapter — A Checklist for New-Content Planners

Checkpoint 1: What existing payment habits does my content’s whale have?

Not all content has game-like whales, but many industries rely on a few heavy users for most revenue: classical-performance season-ticket holders, top-tier fan-club members, and premium subscribers. First identify the habit-space from which the user most likely to spend on your content comes. Design for that person first.

Checkpoint 2: Price is not the only way to lower the first-payment barrier

The core task is lowering psychological resistance. The amount and framing should feel like “a small luxury for myself.” What first amount would make a user think, “I can spend this much” on your content, and what is the most attractive offer at that price?

Checkpoint 3: Which payment motive should you address first?

Which of the nine motives best fits your content? Education may fit achievement; community services fit community and identity; entertainment fits ownership and scarcity. Identify the motive first, then design the initial offer. If you do not know which applies, the fastest method is to ask current payers why they made their first payment.

Checkpoint 4: Design the conditions that turn non-payers into payers

The four conversion conditions—identity, competition, social triggers, and a desired item—apply outside games as well. In a service with many free users, ask: Is there a moment when “this is mine” creates ownership? Is there comparison or competition? Is there a community that normalizes payment? Is there a moment when a person can obtain something special they want?

Early Payment Signals — Identifying High Spenders Early

Game operations teams try to predict later payment patterns from early user behavior.

D+0 starter-pack buyer: A user who buys within 24 hours of starting is relatively likely to become a long-term payer. It is an early signal of willingness to spend.

First payment by D+7: A user who pays within seven days of joining is more likely than a non-payer to remain for at least thirty days. If no payment occurs in the first week, the conversion opportunity rapidly diminishes.

Payer after D+30: A user who begins paying after a free month has already invested substantial time. The first payment signals “a decision finally made,” and later payment frequency tends to rise.

In-game behavior patterns: Metrics can predict a potential whale even before payment: session time, content-consumption speed, and social behavior such as joining a guild or inviting friends. These behaviors tend to correlate with later spending.

Such indicators are not exclusive to games. For a newsletter, opens in the first seven days may predict conversion; for an education platform, time to complete the first lesson; for a community service, first-week comment count. Free-user behavior contains signals of payment potential.

Two Directions of Payer Management — Acquisition and Retention

Payer management has two directions: acquiring new payers and retaining existing payers.

Acquisition converts non-payers into first-time payers. It is the most expensive area, with friction across many stages from user-acquisition cost to payment conversion. Starter packs, first-purchase bonuses, and intensive events focus here.

Retention keeps someone who has paid once paying. It costs less and yields more than new acquisition. Battle passes, VIP point systems, and monthly subscriptions are retention tools.

A frequently cited principle says retaining an existing customer costs only one-fifth to one-seventh as much as acquiring a new one. It operates even more strongly in games. Users who have formed an identity find it hard to move to another game; leaving would erase invested time and money. This is why churn defense is central to live operations.

A typical method of catching users near churn is the returning-player package, offered when someone returns after a period of absence. With a message such as “We have been waiting for you,” the game offers a larger package at a lower price. This design operates not when churn is merely predicted, but after it has already begun.

Part 14 continues with payment-point design and data. Once we know who pays, the next question is when they pay.

Kim Dongeun · WhtDrgon@MEJE.kr · 2026