The 'Buy on Web' Button: Why Your Mobile Game Now Has a Web Shop

Open a big mobile game in the United States today and there is a decent chance its shop has a new button. Instead of paying through Apple or Google, you can tap through to the publisher's own website, buy the same bundle of gems or coins, often with a bonus attached, and find it waiting in your account when you return to the game.

That button barely existed two years ago. It is now one of the most important trends in mobile game business, because it changes who takes a cut of every purchase. Two events opened the door: a 30 April 2025 US court order that barred Apple from charging commission on purchases made through outside links, and Google's March 2026 settlement with Epic Games, which cut its standard Play Store fee to 20% or less and loosened its billing rules.

Why publishers love the web

For more than a decade, almost every in-app purchase in a mobile game carried an app-store commission of up to 30% (15% for small developers and some subscriptions). Selling the same item on a website instead costs the publisher only a payment-processing fee, typically a few percent, plus the cost of running the shop.

That difference is enormous for games that earn hundreds of millions of dollars a year. Publishers can keep part of the saving as profit and pass part of it on to players as cheaper prices or extra currency, which is why web shops so often advertise "bonus" amounts.

How a web shop works

The flow is usually simple: 1. In the game's shop, you tap a link or button marked as an external purchase. 2. Your browser opens the publisher's store, where you log in with your game account (or are logged in automatically through the link). 3. You pay with a card or a local payment method. 4. The items are delivered to your account, often within seconds.

Many publishers run these stores with help from specialist companies, such as Xsolla, Stash, Appcharge and Aghanim, which handle payments, taxes and fraud checks in dozens of countries. Some big studios had web stores long before 2025, for example Supercell's Supercell Store, but they could not advertise them inside iPhone games until the rules changed.

The rules are not the same everywhere

• United States: since April 2025, iPhone games can link to web shops without paying Apple a commission on those sales. In December 2025 an appeals court said Apple may eventually charge a limited, cost-based fee, and the US Supreme Court is now reviewing the contempt ruling behind the order (see our Epic v. Apple explainer).
• European Union: link-outs are allowed under the Digital Markets Act, but Apple still charges fees on many of them under its 2025 EU terms (see our DMA story).
• Android: after the Epic settlement, Google allows alternative billing and outside offers with lower fees.
• Korea and Japan: both have laws targeting forced in-app payment, and Korea's regulator fined Google and Apple in October 2026 (see our Korea story).

What players should check

Web shops can be a real bargain, but they work differently from store purchases:

• Refunds and support come from the publisher, not from Apple or Google.
• Family controls such as Apple's Ask to Buy do not apply on a website, so parents may want card alerts or separate limits.
• Make sure the link is official. Use the button inside the game or the address the publisher lists on its site. Fake top-up websites are a common scam.
• Compare prices. Not every web bundle is cheaper; some just add a small bonus.

Why it matters

Web shops quietly shift money from platforms to game makers. That could mean better prices for players, more profitable studios and, in the long run, less pressure on game design to squeeze spending through ever more aggressive in-app offers. It could also mean more scams and less consumer protection if players are careless. The "buy on web" button is small. The fight that put it there was not.