Well, if you're Backflip Studios, maker of iPhone hits such as Ragdoll Blaster and Paper Toss, your portfolio of ad-supported games earns you $500,000 a month! 

http://www.mobile-ent.biz/news/39186/Backflip-Studios-making-500k-a-month-from-in-game-ads

This is in ad revenues only. It excludes money earned from purchased games. These revenues are more than double what Backflip was seeing from ads six months ago. Based on last year's trend, Backflip estimates $2 million in ad revenue for the month of December!

Backflip has 47.5 million downloads on iOS and 5.5 million on Android, though it's not clear how many of those were free and how many were paid. Those installs see around 2 million active users daily and 15 million active users every month, generating 600-800 million ad impressions.

Zynga's worth around a million a day.

http://techcrunch.com/2010/05/03/zynga-revenue/

Yeah, those virtual goods are surprisingly lucrative. My sister has paid $150 to such a game... twice.

A million a day isn't too surprising, I'm just trying to figure out what Zynga is supposed to do with the billions of investor capital that keeps getting thrown at them.

Make a gaming console?

Popular apps with ad support can get up to 25 euros CPM (25 euro per 1000 views)

the most popular app (dutch news app) we have has 35 million views a day Month only on the iPhone devices..

I don't see why. The way Zynga makes money is by luring new users in with extremely low barriers to entry, then offering them an easy taste of gratification for a fee.

Nobody buys hardware to play Farmville, but they have a PC or a smartphone and the game is free, so why not play? The money only shows up later when the game has engaged the player emotionally.

Zynga piggybacks on hardware and networks that people have already hired to do other jobs. I don't think they could sell a ZyngaBox, or meet as much success with a ZyngaNetwork as they do with Facebook. The only use I can think of for all that investor capital is to make more attractive and compelling social games (not that expensive) or buy access to more platforms and networks.

Are you telling me that your company is earning almost a million euros a day off of one news app? Very impressive!

This mobile advertising schtick must be so lucrative in part because the users are all rich enough to afford a smartphone.

Ow damn I meant 35 million views a MONTH.. sorry bout that... Mobile advertising is very profitable if used right and on the right time.. we actually played with the thought of getting rid of the premium add free paid versions of other apps.. >_>

Well, close to a million euros a month ain't too shabby, either.

I think the question of paid vs. ad-supported is probably best answered by what kind of app you're making. If you're making an arcade game or a news app that somebody might launch several times a day, ads can provide a nice steady revenue stream while the lack of a price tag drives huge user adoption.

On the other hand, if you have an app that is comes in really handy a couple times a month or an adventure game that's going to be played through and then forgotten, you need that cash up front.