Video games have become a widely accepted form of entertainment, and with the proliferation of smartphones, they're becoming a part of many people's everyday routines. This paper describes the history of free mobile games in both Croatia and worldwide, while clarifying the workings of the freemium monetisation model which makes mobile phones the most profitable video gaming platform of today. Furthermore, the paper presents key performance indicators used to determine the success of a freemium game and analyses the difference between purchase tendencies of American and Croatian players using concrete data from the industry. An overview is given of the most common criticisms of the freemium model on ethical and moral grounds, specifically those stating that those games are designed to exploit the players. Despite criticisms, freemium mobile games remain popular and lucrative. A survey was conducted on 156 Croatian players of mobile games for the purpose of understanding their specific motivations for both purchasing, and the avoidance of purchasing additional content. The results show that the motivations for purchase avoidance where graded much higher in importance than purchase motivations. Reasonable price was the most important motivation for purchase for those players who had previously bought additional content, as well as motivations related to unobstructed play and disabling ads. This differs from the results of a similar survey done on the Finnish market, the results of which have shown that financially investing in their hobby and supporting the development of a good game are strong purchase motivations for paying players.