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XsollaA93

Merchant of Record · Game developers and publishers selling direct to players internationally — PC and web titles, direct-to-con…

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Overview

For a game studio selling direct to players across borders, Xsolla does something genuinely hard and does it at scale: global tax, fraud, local payment methods and a web shop that keeps revenue out of the app stores. The 5% headline is a real number and a good deal against a 30% platform cut. What holds the grade to a B- is not the product but everything around it — no published rate card beyond a floor, contract-specific payout terms you cannot see before signing, and a documented governance record that a founder handing over their entire revenue collection is entitled to weigh.

Best for: Game developers and publishers selling direct to players internationally — PC and web titles, direct-to-consumer web shops attached to mobile games, in-game currency and item sales, and studios that would otherwise have to register for VAT and GST across dozens of jurisdictions. The web shop product in particular is the standard answer for a mobile studio trying to move purchases off the app stores.

Strengths

  • + Twenty-one years in the games business, founded in 2005, and the only merchant of record at scale built exclusively around game economies rather than adapted to them.
  • + The tax burden genuinely transfers. As legal seller, Xsolla owes the VAT, GST and sales tax across the markets it sells into, which is the single most expensive thing for a small studio to build and defend in-house.
  • + Fraud and chargeback losses sit with Xsolla rather than being passed through, so its risk decisions are aligned with the developer's revenue rather than against it.
  • + Coverage claims are broad and specific: more than 1,000 payment methods, 200-plus markets, 130-plus currencies and 25-plus languages, which is the practical difference between reaching a player in Brazil or Indonesia and not.
  • + The Web Shop and Buy Button products are a direct answer to the 30% mobile platform cut, and a 5% revenue share against 30% is a large enough gap that the arithmetic works even before the tax handling is counted.
  • + Integration options span hosted, component and headless checkout plus SDKs, so the checkout can be embedded into a game client rather than bolted alongside it.

Trade-offs

  • – There is no published rate card. The one published 5% figure sits on the Login product page rather than on merchant-of-record or Pay Station pricing, so it is a marketing floor for a specific configuration rather than a price, and everything above it is negotiated privately.
  • – Third-party reports put the realistic all-in cost between 7% and 10% once payment method costs and modules are included. We could not corroborate that independently, but no source claims the effective rate is 5%.
  • – Payout schedules and minimum payout thresholds are contract-specific and not published anywhere, so a developer cannot model cash flow before entering a sales process.
  • – In August 2021 Xsolla dismissed around 150 employees identified as 'unengaged and unproductive' by an analysis of their work activity, communicated by an email from the founder that drew wide criticism across the games industry.
  • – Bloomberg reported in 2024 that more than $100 million had moved between Xsolla company accounts and accounts personally held by founder Aleksandr Agapitov between 2021 and 2023. Xsolla's president called the reporting inaccurate and said the company manages its finances responsibly and in compliance with applicable law.
  • – Six former executives have sued Xsolla and/or Agapitov since 2019 by Bloomberg's count, including wrongful-termination claims from a former vice president of global accounting and a former chief financial officer who said they were dismissed after questioning company financials. The suits have been settled or dismissed.

Fees in detail

  • Online rate: Xsolla's marketing describes a revenue share "as low as 5%", and the only place it publishes an actual number is its Login product page, whi
  • Contract: Not published. Commercial terms, payout schedules and minimums are negotiated per publisher.

Standard published rate for a domestic online card payment. Confirm current pricing on Xsolla's pricing page.

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