RuStore expands payment options for mobile game developers
14 November 2026
Developers can now take money in RuStore through four routes: selling a paid app, renewable subscriptions, consumable products and non-consumable products. According to RuStore's payment documentation, the Pay SDK behind them also works in apps distributed through any app store in Russia, not only in titles published on RuStore itself. For small studios that sell on several storefronts, that second point may matter more than the list of models.
Four ways to earn from a game
RuStore's documentation sets out the monetization menu plainly. A developer can charge up front for the app, sell renewable subscriptions, offer consumable products, or offer non-consumable products. Each suits a different kind of game, and many studios will combine more than one.
A paid app is the simplest to understand: the player pays once, then downloads and plays. It fits premium narrative games, puzzle collections and ports of older console-style titles, where the audience expects to pay once and be done. Consumables are items that are used up and bought again, such as in-game currency, energy refills or boosts. Non-consumables are bought once and kept, for example an ad-free mode, an extra campaign or a cosmetic pack. Subscriptions renew on a schedule and suit content that keeps arriving, such as seasonal passes or a monthly bundle of resources.
The question of who may apply is just as important for independent developers. RuStore says monetization is available for both companies and individuals when publishing through RuStore Console. For the payment programme itself, applications are accepted from legal entities and individual entrepreneurs registered in the Russian Federation, as well as from foreign companies not registered in Russia. In practice, a two-person studio operating as an individual entrepreneur is in the same queue as a larger publisher. A foreign team that has no Russian registration is also within the stated scope.
What can be sold, and how to set it up
RuStore Console is the entry point for Android apps, and the monetization tools sit inside it. The same console supports paid apps, subscriptions and in-app purchases, so a studio does not need to run separate accounts for a premium release and a free-to-play one. A game can be free to download and earn through in-app purchases, or it can carry a price tag from the first install.
That flexibility shapes how a catalogue is planned. Before writing any integration code, a studio needs to decide which items are consumable and which are permanent, because the type determines how the purchase behaves after it is made. A developer who tags a permanent unlock as consumable can end up with a product that behaves wrongly when the player reinstalls the game. The cleaner approach is to write the product list on paper first, mark each line as consumable, non-consumable or subscription, and only then create the entries in the console.
The same product types apply whatever the genre. Studios shipping free-to-play titles, casual arcade games or social casino platforms work with the same set of billing options, and no separate payment product is needed for any of them. Premium games that cost money at download fall under the paid-app route instead. What changes from one genre to the next is the pricing logic rather than the technical plumbing.
One requirement catches teams out. RuStore says that accepting payments requires the app to be uploaded to RuStore Console and to have passed moderation, even if publication is not mandatory. So a studio that distributes mainly through another store, and only wants RuStore's payment tools, still has to upload the build and get it through review. It does not have to make the game public in RuStore's catalogue, but it cannot skip the console step. Teams should schedule that review before a planned release rather than after it, since a payment integration that is finished but unapproved cannot take money.
Payment methods and SDK platforms
The payment side covers the main ways Russian players already pay online. RuStore's list of supported methods includes Russian bank cards, Mir cards issued in Belarus, the Faster Payments System (SBP) and SberPay. Technical support is just as broad: the SDK covers the languages and engines in which most Russian mobile games are built. The two lists below summarize what the documentation names.
- Payment methods: Russian bank cards and Mir cards issued in Belarus
- Payment methods: SBP and SberPay
- Native development: Kotlin and Java
- Cross-platform frameworks: Flutter and React Native
- Game engines: Unity, Defold, Godot and Unreal Engine
The presence of Defold and Godot alongside Unity and Unreal stands out. Small teams often choose lighter engines for casual and 2D games, and these are the teams most likely to lose time writing a custom wrapper around a payment API. Having these engines on the supported list means a developer on one of them can work from the vendor's own SDK instead of building the bridge alone.
The cross-store point deserves attention too. RuStore says Pay SDK can be used in apps distributed through any app store in Russia. A studio that publishes the same build in several Russian storefronts can keep one payment integration instead of maintaining a different billing library for each. That reduces testing work, and it keeps the purchase experience consistent for the player, whichever store the game was installed from.
The inclusion of Mir cards issued in Belarus is a small detail with a clear audience: players in Belarus holding such cards are covered alongside those with Russian bank cards. SBP and SberPay add routes that do not require typing a card number into a form, which can help on a phone, where entering sixteen digits tends to cause abandoned purchases.
Paying without a RuStore login, and the subscription limit
The most practical recent change concerns who needs to be logged in. RuStore says payments without RuStore authorization are available starting from Pay SDK version 9.0.1. Before that version, a player generally had to be signed in to the store account to complete a purchase. From 9.0.1 onwards, an anonymous buyer can pay without that step.
For a game developer this is mostly a question of friction. Each login screen between the "buy" button and the confirmation costs some purchases, particularly impulse buys of small consumable items. A player who installed the game from another store, or who never signed in to RuStore, is exactly the person for whom the change matters. Developers who integrated an older SDK build should check which version they ship before assuming anonymous payments work. Upgrading the dependency is the first step, followed by testing a purchase on a device that is not logged in.
Subscriptions are the exception. RuStore says subscriptions in Pay SDK are available only to users authorized via VK ID. The reasoning is easy to follow: a renewable payment needs a durable identity to attach to, so that the subscription can be managed, renewed and cancelled. A one-off purchase has no such need.
The design consequence is that a game offering a subscription should plan for a login prompt at that point, and only there. A sensible structure keeps the main store flow open to anonymous buyers for consumables and permanent unlocks, and asks for VK ID only when the player chooses a recurring plan. Developers who put the login wall in front of everything would give up the benefit of the 9.0.1 change. Those who skip it for subscriptions will find the offer unavailable to anonymous users.
The market behind the tools
The scale of spending explains why developers care about payment routes. In 2024, Russia's mobile gaming market generated approximately $247.2 million in in-app purchase revenue, according to Sensor Tower data reported by App2Top. The figure covers purchases made inside games, which is precisely the revenue stream the consumable and non-consumable products are built to capture.
Set against that number, the payment toolkit has a clear commercial purpose. Players in Russia are spending real money inside mobile games, and studios need ways to collect it that work with local cards and local payment systems. The inclusion of SBP, SberPay and Mir-based options reflects the methods those players actually hold. A developer who has not yet configured these methods leaves a share of that market untapped.
The practical order of work is short. Upload the build to RuStore Console and pass moderation, submit the monetization application as a company, individual entrepreneur or foreign company, define the product catalogue by type, and integrate the SDK at version 9.0.1 or later so anonymous purchases work. Add VK ID only where a subscription requires it.