Online payment processor PayPal is one of the most popular in the world. In its Q1 2019 financials, PayPal confirmed that it has 277 million user accounts and 22 million merchant accounts. People use the platform because it makes it easy to spend money with a merchant, wherever they are and whatever currency they prefer to use.
For gamers, these are winning characteristics. You want to get into a game quickly, you don’t want to spend your time figuring out exchange rates or trying to connect your bank account to the platform. In MMOs and MMORPGs, where you often need to spend to get the best loot and the coolest character outfits, getting money into your wallet is hugely important. Not all games and game platforms support PayPal, but there a few notable ones that do.
Humble Bundle
One major game platform that allows users to pay with PayPal is Humble Bundle, the storefront that offers game bundles and donations to charity. Humble Bundle has raised around $100 million for charity since launching in 2010, with users being able to round up the money they are spending, or add a donation to their transaction when they buy a game or bundle.
When you’re asking people to be charitable, you want to make it as easy as possible to do so. By supporting PayPal, users can donate and buy games without much thought. Fewer people are going to give their money away if they have to spend time typing in their credit card information or bank details.
UK Casinos
In the United States, casino operators are not allowed to offer PayPal. However, there are many casinos that accept PayPal in UK. As is the case with MMORPG player trying to equip their characters and get to raids quickly, people use PayPal when playing at online casinos because it offers quicker transaction times. It also has greater security and advanced encryption, making it difficult for anyone to intercept your information as you’re adding funds to the casino wallet.
UK casinos are laid out pretty well, meaning you can find popular games like NetEnt’s Starburst slot and the supernatural slot, Microgaming’s Immortal Romance with a few clicks. The use of PayPal means that you can start playing and spinning the reels in a couple of minutes.
Epic Games Store
The Epic Games Store launched in a crowded market of digital storefronts and so it has had to stand out somehow. Accessibility is one thing it has used to do this. In the Epic Games Store FAQ, the store explains that it supports credit cards, PayPal, and local payment methods.
The store has also tried to offer the same prices in each region so that someone in the UK won’t pay much more than someone in the US, though there are currency exchange rates. Epic has developed Fortnite, one of the biggest multiplayer games, and so the hundreds of millions who play this probably make good use of PayPal.
Online gaming platforms are learning how to grow their player bases in other countries, seeing that they can grow their revenue by being in more regions. PayPal can be part of that so expect more platforms to add it.
