Who Purchases and Why? Explaining Motivations for In-game Purchasing in the Online Survival Game Fortnite

Jie Cai, New Jersey Institute of Technology,
Donghee Yvette Wohn, New Jersey Institute of Technology,
Guo Freeman, Clemson University

Many people are playing Fortnite, and many news reported the popularity of this game and how its free-to-model generated revenue and followed by other games. Since the equipment/items purchased in the game are only aesthetic but not instrumental, indicating it will not change the game mechanism, why would so many people like to pay? We asked three questions: What factors are associated with the likelihood of spending money in Fortnite? What are the reasons for players to buy in-game items in Fortnite? How do these factors and reasons influence the actual amount of money players spend in the game?

We surveyed 247 Fortnite players across online and offline platforms including Mechanical Turk, Facebook groups, Reddit, Twitter, and collegiate eSports clubs through direct contact. We applied two regression models and exploratory factor analysis and found that:

• Younger players are more likely to pay (buy in-game items).
• Players are motivated by showing unique instead of being social.
• A stronger social pressure can decrease the actual spending behavior.
• Players with a habit to play are actually spending less, which is contradictory to previous research.

Contact author: Jie Cai

CHI PLAY session:
Broader Reflections
Thursday, 24 October 2019, 16:00–17:30

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