Merchant of Record for Games: Web Shops, In-Game Purchases and the Tax Nobody Warns You About
Games break most of the assumptions a normal Merchant of Record is built on. The buyer might be thirteen, paying from a prepaid wallet, on a phone, for a currency that only exists inside your game. That's a long way from a SaaS subscription, and it's why gaming has its own set of MoR providers.
Why games reach for a MoR in the first place
Apple and Google take roughly 30% and act as the store of record inside their app stores. Selling through a web shop instead — a direct storefront where players top up outside the app store — lets a studio keep more of the money. The catch is that the studio, or its Merchant of Record, now owns the payment, the tax and the fraud.
So in games the MoR question is usually tied to the web shop: when a player buys coins on your site instead of through the App Store, who is the seller? That's the role a gaming MoR steps into.
In-game purchases are a tax problem in disguise
Sell virtual currency or items to players in dozens of countries and you inherit dozens of rules on how digital goods are taxed. A Merchant of Record that becomes the seller can absorb all of that.
One thing to check specifically: confirm the provider covers in-game currency and virtual items, not just 'digital products' in the abstract. The wording matters when a tax authority asks what was actually sold.
Players don't all pay with a card
Card payments dominate in some markets and barely register in others. Carrier billing, e-wallets, prepaid vouchers and regional methods are how a lot of players actually pay. Part of what a gaming MoR earns its fee for is covering that long tail so you don't lose sales at checkout in markets you can't serve alone.
Chargebacks and fraud hit games harder
Stolen cards, a kid who buys and a parent who disputes it, thousands of tiny transactions — games attract chargebacks and fraud at a rate most SaaS never sees. A Merchant of Record that takes on chargeback handling and fraud screening is doing real work here, not just passing the payment through.
The providers built for this
A handful of MoRs specialize in games rather than treating them as an afterthought:
- • Xsolla — the most established, covering game sales, web shops and in-game purchases for publishers, around 5% plus channel costs.
- • Coda — a Merchant of Record and payment network for games, digital content and in-app currencies, priced by custom quote.
- • Tebex — reseller and MoR built for game servers, UGC and webstores; fees start at 5%, with a higher 15% rate for FiveM stores.
- • Breeze — newer, aimed at games and mobile apps, with fiat and crypto settlement.
- • Fungies — a storefront MoR for SaaS and games at 5% plus 50¢.
- • General software MoRs like FastSpring and PayPro Global also accept games if you want one provider across more than just gaming.
What to verify before you commit
The checkout working is not the same as the provider covering your case. Get these confirmed for your title before you migrate real revenue.
- • In-game currency and virtual items are explicitly accepted.
- • Web shop and, if relevant, mobile-store rules are handled.
- • The local payment methods your players use are supported.
- • Chargeback and fraud handling, refunds and payout terms are clear.
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