Apple and Google take up to 30% of every in-app purchase. A gaming payment gateway on your own web shop takes 2% to 4%. That gap is why direct to consumer revenue grew 26% in 2025 while mobile gaming overall grew 0.2%, and why the top 100 mobile titles put 38% more through D2C channels year on year.
What almost nobody writes down is what the 30% was buying. Move the checkout to your own store and you inherit the fraud, the chargebacks, the sales tax filings and the job of supporting a payment method in every country you sell to. Xsolla puts the realistic net saving at 10% to 20%, not 30%, and that is the honest number.
This guide covers what a gaming payment gateway does, what a web shop actually costs once fees, tax and disputes are counted, which payment methods matter by region, and where studios lose money after they switch. For the mechanics of card payments generally, start with how a payment gateway works.
Set Up Payments for Your Game Studio
A web shop needs a company, a settlement account and an acquirer that will underwrite digital goods. We arrange all three as one piece of work.
- Payment gateway setup: card acquiring arranged for digital goods, not left to a plugin.
- Jurisdiction selection: the country chosen around where you can bank and invoice players.
- Business banking: the settlement account opened as part of the setup.
- Built for non-residents: no visa, no residence, no local partner.
- Flat fee, quoted upfront: the whole scope priced in writing before anything starts.
What Is a Gaming Payment Gateway?
A gaming payment gateway is card acquiring and alternative payment processing built for digital goods sold inside or alongside a game. It handles the checkout on a web shop, in a launcher or through an external link from a mobile app, then settles the money to the studio rather than to a platform holder.
What a Game Payment Gateway Handles
Five jobs. It renders a checkout that works in the currencies and payment methods your players use. It runs fraud screening on a transaction type that attracts more of it than most. It grants the entitlement back to the game through a webhook once payment clears. It handles refunds and disputes. And it either files your sales tax or leaves that with you, which is the single biggest structural difference between providers.
A general purpose processor does the first and third of those and nothing else. That is the practical line between a game payment gateway and a card processor with a games page on its website.
Gaming Payment Gateway vs App Store Billing
App store billing is a bundle. The platform takes up to 30% and in return handles payment methods worldwide, tax registration and remittance in every market, refunds, chargebacks and the entitlement grant. It is expensive and it is not doing nothing.
A payment gateway for gaming unbundles that. You keep the 30% minus your processing costs, and you take on the parts the platform was doing. Studios that model only the fee line are surprised twice: once by tax registration and once by their first chargeback week.
So a payment gateway for gaming is cheaper on the fee and dearer on everything around it. The saving is real and it is smaller than the headline difference suggests, which is why the honest comparison is an all-in one.
Who Needs a Payment Gateway for Video Games
Three groups. Studios running a web shop for a live service title, where players top up currency or buy passes outside the app. PC and console studios selling keys or DLC direct. And publishers using an external purchase link from a mobile app, which is now permitted in the US and, on different terms, in the EU.
If your entire distribution is Steam or the app stores and you have no direct channel, you do not need one yet. The decision arrives the first time someone models what a web shop would return.
Gaming Payment Gateway Costs Compared
A web shop costs 2% to 4% in processing plus tax handling, against up to 30% in platform commission. The catch is that the routes are not equally available: what you pay depends on whether players reach your store through an in-app link or find it themselves.
Platform Commission vs Gateway Fees
Rates as at September 2026. The external link column moved twice in twelve months, so check it before modelling.
Route | Platform takes | Processing | What you also take on |
|---|---|---|---|
In-app purchase, iOS or Android | Up to 30% | Nothing extra | Nothing, the platform does it all |
External link from a US app | 0% pending a court-set rate | 2% to 4% | Tax, fraud, disputes, support |
External link from an EU app | 12% or 20% under the DMA | 2% to 4% | Tax, fraud, disputes, support |
Standalone web shop, no in-app link | 0% | 2% to 4% | Tax, fraud, disputes, acquisition |
PC storefront key sales | Varies by store | 2% to 4% | Key management and revocation |
Read the last two columns together. The US external link at 0% looks like the whole 30% falls to you, but the district court has not yet set the cost-based rate the Ninth Circuit said Apple may eventually charge, so that line is provisional. The standalone web shop is the only route that is 0% and stable, and it is also the only one where you have to bring the player yourself.
What the 30% Was Actually Buying
Tax is the big one. Sell digital goods to consumers in the EU and you owe VAT in the country of the player, not your own, which means a registration or an OSS filing. Do it in the US and economic nexus rules pull you into state sales tax. The platform was doing all of that invisibly.
Then fraud, chargebacks, refunds, PCI scope and payment method coverage. None of it is impossible and all of it is work. Budget the headcount or buy a merchant of record that does it for a higher percentage.
The Volume Where a Web Shop Pays Off
The arithmetic is simple and the answer surprises people. A 30% commission on USD 100,000 a month of in-app revenue is USD 30,000. The same revenue through a web shop at 3% processing plus roughly 1% in tax tooling and dispute costs is around USD 4,000, so the gross saving is USD 26,000 a month.
Against that, put the build, the ongoing support load and the share of players who will not leave the app to buy. That last figure is the one that decides it. Xsolla's own framing of a 10% to 20% net saving assumes most of your spenders follow you, and a store that converts 40% of the traffic the app was converting does not clear the bar.
Model Your Web Shop Before You Build It
Processing, tax, disputes and the share of players who actually follow you out of the app. We price all four against your real revenue mix.
- The all-in rate: processing, tax handling and dispute costs added up, not just the fee line.
- Route by route: in-app, external link and standalone web shop compared on your numbers.
- A straight answer: including when your volume says stay on platform billing.
- Sector screened upfront: against acquirers who actually underwrite digital goods.
- Flat fee, quoted upfront: nothing taken before the scope is agreed.
Payment Methods for Online Gaming
Cards are a minority of gaming spend in most of the markets where gaming grows fastest. A payment gateway for online gaming is judged on coverage before it is judged on rate, because a method you cannot accept is a 100% decline rather than an expensive approval.
Cards, Wallets and Local Methods
Every serious provider covers cards and the big wallets. The difference is the long tail: Pix and boleto in Brazil, UPI in India, konbini in Japan, OXXO in Mexico, bank transfer schemes across Europe. A studio with a large Brazilian player base and no Pix is not competing on price, it is absent.
Carrier Billing and Prepaid Codes
Direct carrier billing charges the purchase to a phone bill and is the only route for players without a card. It costs far more than a card, often in the low double digits in percentage terms, and it converts where nothing else does. Prepaid game codes sold in retail work the same way for an audience that will not put a card online at all.
Both belong in the mix rather than at the front. Route the card players to cards and keep these for the segment that has nothing else, which is how the number stays manageable.
Why Coverage Beats Rate in Gaming
Region | Method that matters | Why it decides revenue |
|---|---|---|
Brazil | Pix, boleto | Card penetration is low relative to spending players |
India | UPI | Near universal and effectively free to the player |
Japan | Konbini, carrier billing | Cash and phone bill habits persist online |
Southeast Asia | Wallets, carrier billing | Wallet adoption outruns card issuance |
Europe | Cards, bank transfer, wallets | Cards work, but SCA adds a challenge step |
United States | Cards, PayPal | Cards dominate, disputes are the cost line |
The pattern is that the cheapest method is rarely the one your players use. Price the blended rate across the mix you will actually see, not across the card rate you were quoted, which is the same arithmetic covered in international payment gateway costs.
Chargebacks and Fraud in Gaming
Gaming runs a chargeback rate of roughly 0.6% to 0.7% against a card scheme threshold that is now 1.5%. That sounds like headroom until you notice that gaming transactions are small, disputes cost a flat USD 15 to 20 each, and the fee often exceeds the purchase.
The Gaming Chargeback Benchmark
The accepted industry benchmark sits at 0.6% to 0.7%, and Tebex reports running at under half of that. Visa cut its VAMP dispute threshold to 1.5% on 1 April 2026, so a studio at benchmark is at roughly 40% of the ceiling. That is comfortable, and it is not a reason to ignore the line, because the fees bite long before the threshold does.
Friendly Fraud and Family Accounts
Most gaming disputes are not criminal. They are a player who spent, regretted it, and told the bank they did not authorise it, or a parent who found a child's purchases. The transaction is genuine and the evidence you hold is thin, because a digital entitlement has no delivery address and no signature.
The defences are unglamorous and they work: a clear billing descriptor players recognise, a receipt email, in-game purchase history the player can see, and a refund policy generous enough that the easy path is asking you rather than the bank. Studios that tighten refunds to protect revenue usually raise their dispute rate instead.
What a Dispute Actually Costs
Liam Wiltshire of Tebex puts the typical chargeback fee at USD 15 to 20. On a USD 4.99 currency pack that is three to four times the sale, so the loss is the fee rather than the goods. At 0.65% of transactions on 100,000 monthly purchases, that is roughly 650 disputes and USD 10,000 to USD 13,000 a month in fees alone before any revenue is clawed back.
Model it as a cost line from day one. It is the single item most studios leave out of the web shop business case, and it is large enough to move the answer.
Any online gaming payment gateway you shortlist should tell you its dispute handling process and its representment win rate before you sign. Studios already carrying a high rate should read opening a high risk merchant account first.
Get Approved for Digital Goods Acquiring
Games sit in a category many acquirers price as high risk. We screen the activity against real appetite before an application is filed.
- Sector screened upfront: against each provider's actual appetite for digital goods.
- One application, not five: prepared properly rather than repeated after a decline.
- Reserve and rate expectations: told to you before you commit, not after approval.
- High risk covered: the categories a mainstream acquirer turns down at the first question.
- Live in days, not months: on the European providers, longer on cross-border.
Gaming Payment Gateway Providers Compared
Four kinds of provider serve games, and they differ on whether they carry your tax liability. That question matters more than the rate, because it decides whether you need a finance function in every market you sell to.
Provider type | Example | Who carries tax | Typical all in |
|---|---|---|---|
Games merchant of record | Xsolla, Coda Payments | The provider | 5% and up |
Web shop platform | Tebex | The provider on most plans | 5% and up |
General processor | Stripe, Adyen | You | 2.9% plus fixed fee |
Specialist acquirer | Emerchantpay, Paypercut | You | Under 2% on EEA cards |
The spread between 2% and 5% is not a markup for the same service. It is the price of someone else registering for VAT in the markets you sell to, filing it, and taking the liability if it is wrong. On a small web shop that is worth paying. Past a few million a year it usually is not.
Online Gaming Payment Gateway Requirements
Whichever type you pick, an online gaming payment gateway has to do four things a general processor may not: settle micro-transactions economically, cover the local methods your players use, grant entitlements back to the game in real time, and survive a dispute rate higher than retail. Score providers on those four before you look at the rate.
That is also the honest test for anyone selling you gaming payment gateway services. A provider that cannot name its approval rate on Brazilian cards, or its dispute handling process, is selling you card acquiring with a games logo on the page.
Merchant of Record Providers
Xsolla and Coda Payments sell gaming payment gateway services as a whole stack: a hosted web shop, hundreds of local payment methods, tax handled, fraud handled. You give up a larger percentage and a degree of control over the checkout, and you get a store live in weeks with no tax registrations.
This is the right first move for most studios adding a direct channel, because the alternative is discovering EU VAT rules in your second month of trading.
Web Shop Platforms
Tebex sits between the two, closer to the games side than a general processor, with its own dispute handling and reported chargeback performance at under half the industry benchmark. Suited to studios that want the store built for them but not the full merchant of record relationship.
General Processors
Stripe and Adyen are cheaper per transaction and leave the tax and the coverage problem with you. They are the right answer once your volume justifies a finance function and once your player base is concentrated enough that the long tail of local methods does not decide your revenue. Compared on rate alone they win, which is the same comparison the best payment gateways for businesses runs for general merchants.
Specialist Acquirers
Direct acquiring is the cheapest line on the page and the hardest to get. It suits established studios with clean dispute history and enough volume to matter to an acquirer. Gaming payment gateway services at this level are negotiated rather than signed up for, and the rate reflects your chargeback record more than your revenue.
Choose the Right Gaming Payment Gateway
Merchant of record or direct acquiring, and which providers cover the markets your players are actually in. We answer both before you build anything.
- A recommendation, not a list: the provider, the model and the expected all-in rate, in writing.
- Coverage checked first: against the countries your revenue actually comes from.
- Tax liability made clear: who registers, who files and who carries the risk.
- Banking arranged in parallel: so the settlement has somewhere to land.
- EUR 30 one-off: credited in full against the work if you go ahead within 30 days.
Business Banking for Gaming Companies
The gateway settles. Something has to receive it. Game studios are not high risk in the way gambling is, but they are digital goods businesses with global consumer revenue and chargeback exposure, and that combination makes some providers slower than a studio expects.
Where Your Settlement Lands
You need an account in the company's name, in the currencies the gateway pays out, at a provider that knows the revenue is consumer digital goods. Multi-currency matters more here than in most sectors, because a global player base means settlement in several currencies and conversion costs on each. The bank against EMI question is in choosing between a bank and an EMI.
What Providers Ask Game Studios
Settle one thing before you apply. A game payment gateway converts and pays out, it does not hold your operating balance, so the account is a separate application with its own questions.
Expect four questions: what you sell and whether any of it is gambling adjacent, where your players are, what your chargeback rate is, and who owns the company. The gambling question is the one that trips studios up, because loot boxes and prize mechanics are read differently in different markets. Answer it directly rather than hoping it does not come up.
If the company is not registered yet, that comes first, since no provider opens an account for an entity that does not exist. The sequence is in setting up the company, and the account itself in how to open a business bank account.
Open a Multi-Currency Account for Your Studio
Global player revenue settles in several currencies. The account has to be open and the activity declared before the first payout arrives.
- Business banking: the account opened as part of the setup, not left to you afterwards.
- Multi-currency from the start: euro, sterling and dollar settlement into one account.
- Activity declared upfront: so consumer digital goods revenue does not trigger a review.
- Two applications in parallel: one negative answer does not cost you another two months.
- Built for non-residents: no residence requirement and no local director.
Common Gaming Payment Gateway Mistakes
Modelling the Fee Line Only
A studio compares 30% against 3% and builds the web shop. Then VAT registration, a tax engine, fraud tooling and dispute fees arrive and the real number is 8% to 10%. The saving is still large, but the business case was written against the wrong figure and the build was scoped against it too. Model processing, tax, fraud and disputes together before anyone writes code.
Ignoring Local Payment Methods
This is the most expensive habit in the sector. Studios pick a payment gateway. Gaming revenue then arrives from markets the default checkout cannot serve, and nobody notices because the failure is silent.
Launching a global web shop with cards and PayPal is the most common failure in this sector, because it quietly removes whole countries from your revenue. A Brazilian player without Pix does not complain, they do not buy. Look at where your installs are, not where your current revenue is, since the current revenue already reflects the methods the app store offered. The pricing mechanics are the same as any online store, covered in ecommerce payment gateway pricing.
Tightening Refunds to Protect Revenue
Studios facing disputes often make refunds harder, which pushes players to the bank instead. A chargeback costs USD 15 to 20 in fees plus the sale, counts against your ratio, and gives you no relationship afterwards. A refund costs the sale. Make the refund the easy path and the dispute rate falls on its own.
Treating the External Link Rules as Settled
Studios lock the store to one route and hard-code that route into the payment gateway. Gaming policy at the platform holders has changed twice in twelve months, so a store built around one set of rules is a store built to be rebuilt.
The US position is 0% on external purchase links, but the Ninth Circuit said in December 2025 that Apple may eventually charge a cost-based rate and the district court has not set one. The EU replaced the per-install Core Technology Fee with a 5% commission on 1 January 2026. Build the web shop so it works as a standalone destination, not only as an in-app link, and the rule changes stop being existential.
Gaming Payment Gateways: The Short Version
If you are adding a direct channel for the first time, take a games merchant of record and accept the higher percentage. If you have real volume and a finance function, move to direct acquiring. If your revenue is entirely in-app and your players will not leave the app, stay where you are.
Your situation | What to do | Why |
|---|---|---|
First direct channel | Games merchant of record | Tax and coverage handled while you learn the channel |
Large live service title | Merchant of record, then acquiring | Move once volume justifies the finance work |
Players concentrated in one market | General processor | The long tail of local methods does not decide revenue |
Mostly EU and US card players | Specialist acquirer | Under 2% on EEA cards beats any bundled rate |
No direct traffic at all | Stay on platform billing | A store nobody reaches saves nothing |
The number to hold on to is the honest one. Xsolla, which sells this channel, puts the net saving at 10% to 20% rather than the full 30%, and that is with their tax and coverage included. Any model showing you keep the whole commission has left something out.
One more framing worth keeping. A payment gateway for gaming is not a cheaper version of app store billing, it is a different deal: you trade a large fixed percentage for a small one plus a set of jobs. Studios that want the small percentage without the jobs should buy a merchant of record, which is a payment gateway for online gaming with the work priced in.
Check Before You Build
Three questions, in order. Where are your spending players and what do they pay with. Who will carry the VAT and sales tax liability. And what share of in-app spenders do you realistically expect to follow you to a web shop. The third is the one that decides whether the project returns anything, and it is the one nobody measures first.
If your game is gambling adjacent rather than a straight video game, the underwriting is a different conversation entirely, and high risk payment gateway setup is the place to start. If you are weighing a licence rather than a merchant account, the Malta gaming licence route covers that side.
Company, Account and Payment Gateway Together
One application covers the entity, the settlement account and the gateway, handled by people who set up digital goods businesses every week.
- One document pack: reused for the company, the bank and the gateway.
- Jurisdiction selection: chosen around banking and invoicing, not filing fees.
- Business banking: arranged in parallel so settlement has somewhere to land.
- Expert advice: licensing and multi-country groups handled in house.
- Flat fee, quoted upfront: the whole scope priced before anything starts.
