Everything game studios need to know about linking to off-platform payments on iOS

We’re in the middle of some major gaming industry shifts that are making D2C solutions more accessible and profitable than ever before. The Apple v Epic ruling from April 30, 2025 is causing shockwaves in the US by letting studios link to off-platform payments from in-game on iOS for the first time. And the Digital Markets Act isn’t far behind in ending anti-steering on iOS in the EU, too: they fined Apple €500 million and gave them a strict deadline for compliance.

It looks like the world is moving towards a more open app ecosystem - but before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s focus on the new freedoms game developers have right now under the Apple v Epic ruling. In this guide, we’re discussing all things external linking, including what’s compliant, best practices for linking to off-platform gaming payment solutions, and examples of game studios that have already implemented external link strategies.

How can you implement external links?

Linking players on iOS in the US directly to a D2C platform can look like:

1. Direct links to your webshop homepage
2. Direct links to a web checkout page

Linking to a web shop

Directly linking to your webshop is a great strategy for reaching players at the top of the funnel and boosting awareness about your D2C channel. It’s a useful first touchpoint for educating players about its existence and value - which can help nurture D2C adoption and increase spend.

The fact is, many players don’t know what webshops are or why they should spend out-of-app. And that’s in big part due to the fact that before the Apple v Epic decision, linking directly to a web shop was impossible - and you also couldn’t use promotional language to talk about your web store in your game, like “purchase”, “offer”, or “shop”. Instead, you had to find a workaround for letting players know your D2C channel existed while also building credibility and value so they shifted their spend there.

For example, Train Station 2 from Pixel Federation sent players from in-game to a dedicated rewards webpage with the promise of free gifts. From this page, players could then navigate to the web store. However, these roundabout ways to get players over to webshops introduced a lot of friction that challenged D2C adoption and spend. 

Now, games can link players directly to their webshops from in-game and use clear terms around buying, offers, and sales so players know what these channels are and their value.

Train Station 2 now sends players directly from the in-game store to the webshop, highlighting that they can expect better deals there than in-game.

Get even more examples of how games link to their webshops in our dedicated blog of link-out examples. 

Linking to a web-based checkout

Now let’s talk about linking to a web checkout page from in-game. Here’s how it works: as players are purchasing their favorite items in-game, they see a side by side option to complete checkout on the web or pay with Apple.

This strategy capitalizes on purchase intent when it’s at its highest, making it ideal for impulse purchases and driving conversions. Pro tip: A web checkout should be used in addition to direct webshop links so you can tap into player motivations at every stage of their journey - from learning your webshop exists to making repeat purchases. 

Fortnite from Epic Games lets players know they have two options for paying in-game: use Apple’s payment system or pay on the web through Epic’s off-platform payment solution. By offering players 20% cash back as Epic Rewards, Fortnite builds value into their D2C payments so players choose it over Apple’s solution. All players need to do is select Epic’s option to be taken directly to a web checkout and complete their purchase.

Increasing conversions: friction vs. motivation

Now that you know the two options for implementing off-platform gaming payment links in iOS, the question is: how can you get players to actually click through and spend via your D2C channels?

There are two levers you can pull to encourage conversions: 

• Friction: You should make it as easy as possible for players to access your D2C channel, whether that’s reaching your webshop from in-game or completing their purchase using your web checkout
• Motivation: Players should feel they’re getting more value by spending off-platform than what they can get in-game

Minimizing friction and increasing motivation together is the key to getting players to choose your off-platform payments. 

Directly linking out to your webshop innately helps address the problems with friction, but in the end you’re still taking players out of the game. And the same goes for web checkout: the moment players need to leave the app to pay, conversions can decrease up to 45%. In both cases, the experience is more friction-filled than Apple’s native payments solution.

The other challenge is addressing motivation. You need to build value into your off-platform payment so players have a reason to choose it, rather than spend through Apple. Look at the side by side payment example from Epic above: they offer players 20% cash-back as a way to motivate players to choose their web checkout. But they still take players out of the app, which can create churn.

The best solution to maximize motivation and minimize friction is to let players purchase on the web without ever leaving the game - and give them the right incentives to do so. This is particularly useful for casual genres like merge and match that have been wary of adopting D2C payments because of UX disruptions and their reliance on impulse purchases (e.g. players purchasing more energy at the end of a level to keep playing). In the past, players would need to stop playing and exit the game to visit a webshop and make a purchase. But with a solution that keeps them in-game - like a web popup - players can complete their purchase without ending the gameplay session.

Stash customers are using Stash Pay to keep players in-game for a zero-friction experience. And with loyalty rewards auto-applied at checkout, they see all the additional value they get by choosing to pay through the web, rather than using Apple’s payment system.

What are examples of games using off-platform payment links?

Let’s take a look at a few of the top game studios lowering friction and increasing motivation with their own external linking strategies on iOS. 

Star Trek Timelines

Persistent messaging and links to your webshop at key touchpoints in the game UX help players recognize your webshop exists and easily head over there. Star Trek Timelines from Tilting Point uses two clear touchpoints to direct traffic to the webshop:

1. A full-screen popup that shows a new offer daily and appears when players return to the game
2. A static CTA button in the in-game shop

For both of these placements, they take players directly to the web store (the friction aspect) and use messaging that clearly conveys the value of the web store and why players should purchase there instead of in-game (the motivation). In the case of the rotating offer popup, the message is more detailed and conversion-faocused, calling out specific offers like the bonus Honor with Honor Sale deals and the Campaign pass at a cheaper price than in-game. The CTA in the in-game shop, meanwhile, is simple and includes one primary incentive that highlights the general value of the shop: some offers on the web include 5% more contents than in-game.

We have yet to see Star Trek Timelines implement any sort of web checkout - for now, it’s just external links to their webshop.

Farmville 3

Taking the persistent linkouts best practice a step further is Farmville 3 from Zynga. They use three separate link placements in their game:

1. System-initiated popup appears after players make enough progress in the game
2. Sticky icon remains on the game screen - players can click to show the popup at any time
3. Banner at the top of the in-game store that lets players go to the webshop when they’re in a buying mindset

The sticky icon on the game screen is a particularly interesting touchpoint. Before Apple v Epic, an icon like this would direct players to a separate webpage, like the dedicated rewards page we saw with Train Station 2.

Now, Farmville 3 can send users straight to their webshop - and constantly remind them of this option via an appealing icon (looks a lot like a free gift reward) in the game. Since there are already a whole bunch of offers on the game screen, this icon fits right in and is a way to shift player spend to D2C channels at moments of high purchase intent.

Board Kings

Let’s not forget the other type of external link-out that game studios can implement: web checkout.

Board Kings from Playtika shows how casual games are using this type of off-platform payment solution. As players are purchasing an offer, they see an option to use either Apple’s payment system or the Board Kings web checkout.

There are two main ways that the game encourages players to pick their web payment (this is the motivation lever we talked about earlier):

• Bonuses: Players get 20% more rolls with their purchase. This is the primary incentive that increases player motivation
• Design: The offer shows the Board Kings web checkout with bright colors, animations, and in a large size - especially when compared to the “Pay with Apple” option in gray. Making the web checkout option stand out and look more appealing emphasizes the value of the incentive, especially in contrast to Apple’s payment system

Beyond converting in the moment, a web checkout is also effective for nurturing hesitant players towards purchasing via your D2C channel. Even if players choose Apple’s payments, your messaging at checkout spreads awareness about your D2C payments and its value compared to in-app purchases.

And a way to boost immediate conversions is to keep players in-game during checkout. Board Kings still requires players to visit a new browser to pay, which adds friction to the process and as we mentioned before, leads to lower conversions. If players are able to pay without ending their session, casual games can capture not just the payments that players make in the in-game store (pictured here with Board Kings), but also the impulse purchases they make at the end of a level or when they run out of energy. When you’re able to capture player spend as purchase motivation is at its highest, that’s how you can start driving much more D2C revenue.

Explore off-platform payments for your game

Every game is different, and just like any other D2C strategy, you need to implement external links in a strategic way that suits your specific player base and game mechanics. It’s not enough to place a few links around your game - you need the right placements, messaging, and incentives that tap into player motivation while reducing friction as much as possible. At Stash, we know what custom D2C solutions should look like because we tailor our strategies from the ground-up for our developer partners. If you want to start experimenting with external links in your game and capture more revenue, talk to us. And if you want even more examples of top studios that are already using off-platform payments, feel free to reach out - we’re seeing more real-life examples of these strategies in action every day that we’d be happy to share.