For starters, let’s get to know each other. We’re Playhop — a web gaming platform ranked in the top 3. Our ecosystem keeps growing, with 45 million players every month. With us, anyone who loves games and really wants to make them can succeed. From time to time, we share stories and tips from devs on our platform — here’s one of them.

In this article, you’ll get insights into what you need to create a great web game that generates solid revenue.

The game on Playhop: Real Fishing

“I studied law, and honestly, I never dreamed of making games. But I’m a gamer myself, and at some point I realized that even in good games, there’s often something that just doesn’t sit right. So I decided to make my own — one where everything would be the way I wanted. I wasn’t thinking about economy or player acquisition at all at first. I was just making a great game”

And then Real Fishing started bringing in money — and mostly through in-app purchases. We sat down with the developer to understand how that happened.

Is your audience ready to pay?

“The game’s target audience was financially capable from the start, and that influenced our monetization approach. In the first few months, we had around 5–10K players. Then, when the game hit the front page and trending sections, the numbers peaked at 70K–80K players”

Step one: to find out whether the audience would pay or just wanted to play for free, the developer added a simple product — a currency pack to speed up progression.

“New players bought currency packs and quickly leveled up. But then they had nothing left to spend money on. So I decided to move forward”

Step two: the developer added rare currency for premium items — but it wasn’t easy to get. You had to earn regular currency, unlock a fishing questline, complete it, and only then would you get rare currency. It wasn’t sold in the shop.

“Players asked me to add rare currency to the shop, but I thought that would be too easy. Sure, people would buy it — but it was more interesting to earn it through quests. I was thinking more about playtime and retention than making quick money”

Conclusion: to test if your audience is willing to pay, start with a basic, clear item like a currency pack and analyze their reaction.

Doing what others do is OK

“The next step in in-app purchases was a battle pass. A classic battle pass, the kind players have seen a hundred times. But that doesn’t mean it won’t work — actually, quite the opposite. The metrics showed that even players who had never made an in-app purchase before were buying the pass”

There are two battle passes in the game: one with basic rewards like bait, and another with exclusive items like rare fishing rods that give a huge advantage.

“I priced the pass fairly: calculated how long it would take to earn the same rewards for free and compared it to competitors’ pricing”

Conclusion: don’t overcomplicate things — especially early on. Using proven tools and adapting them to your game is totally fine.

The more fun it is — the more players pay

“Then I decided to rethink things a bit. Instead of a linear pass, I ran themed events with occasional loot chests”

Running for two weeks to a month, these events boosted in-app revenue by 3–4x.

Examples of events:

• Pirate games: catch dice, play a mini-game, win prizes.
• New year event: find gift bags and a locked safe, then search for the matching key.
• Chest event: catch chests in one location, and keys in another. Special golden chests required unique keys sold only in the shop.

“Often, new players would come at the end of an event and miss everything. So I created special chests with rare rewards from past events just for them”

Conclusion: for events to work, you need two things — a relatable occasion (start with well-known holidays), and a fun, engaging mechanic.

Caught a giant fish — but no one to brag to?

“I got lucky — the community formed on its own. I just created a group and added a button in-game to join”

The Real Fishing community now has nearly 3,000 members. Players share trophies, give feedback, suggest ideas, and follow the news.

“A community is a powerful tool. It motivates players to chase rare rewards and talk about it. And players really value being able to ask the developer questions, discuss updates, or even complain — that’s part of it too”

Conclusion: a strong community is essential for any game with competitive elements or prizes. When players compete, the drive to win exclusive gear or top the charts increases dramatically.

What’s next?

“During events, in-app purchases metrics were off the charts. There were so many events, players got used to spending — and they kept doing it even outside of event periods”

The game continues to follow the in-app monetization path and receives major updates roughly every three months.

“I’m adding all kinds of cool stuff: sure, new rods and bait — but also things like rings and shaman necklaces with different bonuses and stats. In the last update, we even introduced boats and cars”

The game now has :

• Basic fishing currency
• Tokens (for premium shop)
• Doubloons (for a special base)
• Ichthyologist coupons (most valuable)

“The only thing I both regret and don’t regret is not thinking about the game’s architecture and economy from the start. On one hand, it’s great — makes the experience unique. On the other, we now have four currencies. Maybe that’s too many — but players seem to love it”

We’re seeing more and more developers on the platform earning solid revenue through in-app purchases.

Want to try it too? Join the platform!