Can paying for a game make developer lose money?

Situation: I was playing a free android game with ads and option to go Ad Free. I clicked remove ads and it cost $1.99. I was about to pay the $1.99 to support the developer, but then I started thinking, how much does the developer get for ads, and could removing the ads actually be non beneficial to the developer.

So I waited until I could ask here which is better. I don't mind the ads, they a very unobtrusive in this game.

Thanks.

 

Per-user ads barely make any money at all. The entire ad-supported system relies on basically having absolute craploads of people playing your game.

 

It really depends how much the user plays, what ads they've implemented and how well integrated they are. Personally I sincerely doubt that the devs will generate 2 US with unsolicited ads, even with the most addicted users.

 

Paying a couple dollars will give the dev more cash then watching several thousand ads. How many times are you playing this game?

 

I'm not playing it that much, I just had no idea how much the ads pay. I thought if the Dev got a penny an ad, once I watched 200 ads the Dev would actually lose money.

I guess since everything seems to be free with ads I must have mislead myself into thinking the ads generated more income than they actually do.

 

Most likely they are not making $.01 per ad. Advertisements are not a very good way to make money, the best way is to have the users buy in game items. Unless you are seeing the ad 2857 times + then maybe they would be earning more from having you watch the ad

 

What ad format are the ads in? Even if you're in an expensive market for ads, like the US, a rewarded video ad will only net a developer anywhere around $2 - $12 per 1000 views.

So you'd need to watch 1000 video ads, 30 seconds each, to benefit the developer.
Rather make the IAP and spend more time enjoying the game

Because nobody wants to watch an ad for Mobile Strike 1000 times.

 

Trick question. You don't make money either way.

 

RockoDyne, not sure what you mean by trick question. I wasn't talking about myself making money. I just imagined the dev would make more than $1.99 on the ads.

Meltdown, there is a ad about every 2 or 3 screens, each screen takes about a minute to play. The majority of the time the ad is for a tower defense game. There is also a little banner ad running constantly at the bottom of the screen.

So basically one player is not going to have any real effect by watching the ads.

Edit: BTW, this is the game.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.leodesol.games.classic.maze.labyrinth

It says in app purchases but I can't imagine what a player would need to buy for maze. I haven't seen any in game shop or such.

 

Removing the ads for $1.99 would count as an in app purchase.

 

Sell them more mazes.