History Main / Freemium

Of course, this model isn't limited to games. It's a common business model all over the internet. Even on [[Wiki/TVTropes this very wiki]], [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/ad-free-subscribe.php making a modest monthly/yearly pledge]] will remove the advertisements from the site for the duration of your subscription. *nudge nudge*

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' lets you play the game for free without a subscription fee up to a level cap. Originally, the cap was level 35, out of 50 in the base game. It later ''massively'' expanded the free trial content all the way up to the ''Heavensward'' expansion, up to level 60. However, once you purchase the game, you are invalidated from the free trial and need to pay a subscription fee to play, even if you haven't made it past the free content and you only owned just the base game and ''Heavensward'' when the free trial content got expanded.

* When ''VideoGame/QuakeChampions'' first launched, it had an unusual Freemium system. Every player is able to play as Ranger or another champion in the weekly free rotation. Buying the Starter or Champions Pack with real money lets you play as other champions, but you couldn't permanently buy champions with free currency. You could only use it to rent champions to gain temporary access to them for a day (for a little under a day's worth of free currency). The game later switched to a more standard premium currency system and removed the rental system. Free players can now get premium currency via daily login bonuses and use them to buy champions.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' lets you play the game for free without a subscription fee up to a level cap. Originally, the cap was level 35, out of 50 in the base game. It later ''massively'' expanded the free trial content all the way up to the ''Heavensward'' expansion, up to level 60. However, once you purchase the game, you are invalidated from the free trial and need to pay a subscription fee to play, even if you haven't made it past the free content and you only owned up the ''Heavensward'' when the free trial content got expanded.

* ''VideoGame/FreeRealms'' membership starts at around $4.00 per month. The game features {{Micropayments}} as well. [[{{Irony}} Ironic]] considering [[AllegedlyFreeGame its name]].

* ''VideoGame/ToontownOnline'' ran on a monthly subscription model until it closed down in September 2013. Two fanmade private servers, Toontown Rewritten and Toontown Infinite, are completely free to play.

* ''[[http://www.xgenstudios.com/game.php?keyword=stickarena Stick Arena Ballistick]]''. Anyone can play the basic game. Buying a Lab Pass for $5.95 (1 month), $29.95 (6 months) or 57.95 (1 year) will allow you access to new arenas, weapons, pets and spinners.

** A premium user can also buy an item from the store than when traded and used by a free account automatically converts it to premium. [[http://steamcommunity.com/market/listings/440/Upgrade%20to%20Premium%20Gift It can also be purchased from the Community Market]], but it's much more expensive.

* ''{{VideoGame/Sryth}}'' has a lot of content available for free. Buying a subscription (9.95 USD for 3 months, or 19.95 USD for 1 whole year) grants access to even more content: The ability to log in regardless of server load, no ads, more character slots (4 instead of 2), more adventures, more events, more locations to visit, a way to learn all skills and powers instead of just some of them, Grand Residences, Multiplayer scenarios… See [[http://www.sryth.com/ci.php?f_c=members_ag_fb.inc this page]] for an incomplete list of the things subscribers get.

* The web radio service [[http://www.pandora.com Pandora]] is free to use, but upgrading to [[http://www.pandora.com/pandora_one?ref=subscribeLink Pandora One]] provides such perks as unlimited listening time, pause/rewind/skip options, no ads, and such.
* [[http://www.hulu.com Hulu]] offers free video streaming for popular TV shows and movies. Signing up for "Hulu Plus" expands the available video library significantly, as well as letting you watch (some) streams on consoles, handhelds, tablets, phones, etc- Anything that isn't a PC or Mac. Unlike other freemium services, paying for Hulu Plus does not remove the advertising.
* The online music service Spotify has three tiers: Open (completely free, with advertisements and time restrictions), Unlimited (advertisements and time restrictions are removed), and Premium (no ads, no time restrictions, plus additional perks).
** In some markets however, the Open tier isn't time-limited, but has the additional gotcha of not being able to play specific tracks from the artist or album, and you can only listen to an album on shuffle or random songs from the artist. Premium doesn't have those limitations.
* Megavideo (RIP), a video hosting website, used to charge a membership fee for some of its features.
* Some file download sites offer superior service to users who purchase premium memberships. These include faster download speed, no time between downloads, no download limits and the ability to download multiple files at once. Examples:
** [[http://www.4shared.com/premium.jsp?ref=header 4shared Premium]]
** [[http://www.filesonic.com/premium Filesonic Premium]]
** [[http://hotfile.com/premium.html Hotfile Premium]]
** [[http://www.scribd.com Scribd]]: Getting a subscription allows you to download as many documents as you like for a specific period of time.

* Modelling and photography networking site [[http://www.modelmayhem.com Model Mayhem]] offers a free account with a basic front page and a fifteen-image portfolio. For more pictures and fancier page options, one can upgrade to one of several "VIP" account levels.

* The [=VoIP=] service [[http://www.ooma.com Ooma]] offers two tiers of service for its home-phone service. There's the free "Basic" account, and a paid "Premier" account that offers more features (like call forwarding and call blocking) that would cost about 3x as much with a landline plan. New users can get a 60-day free trial of the Premier account, which they can choose to keep or let expire.

* The "virtual tabletop" site [[http://roll20.net Roll20]] has subscription perks like removal of ads, more storage space, special effects like animations and dynamic lighting, etc. One interesting feature is that the benefits apply to any tables owned by the subscriber, so any other players on the table also get no ads even if they're not subscribers.

* ''VideoGame/WorldOfTanks'' gives 50% bonus on all earned experience and game money to users with paid "premium" accounts. While it is entirely possible to get any of the top tanks for free, a few of them are too expensive to repair and require either a premium account, [[NintendoHard lighning-fast reflexes and strategy]] or another tank to earn money for two. T-50-2 is one such example -- as a Tier 5 [[OneHitPointWonder light scout]], that frequently has to face top-tier opponents, it gets killed very often. The game also uses microtransactions, allowing to purchase: more room in the hangar (useful, if you want more than 5 tanks), better shells (sometimes deadly, but usually not very useful) and rare tank models (which are ''usually'' no better than regular, but allow to avoid LevelGrinding).
** The same publisher's ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarplanes'' and ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarships'' operate on the same model, though with a grind that's not quite as harsh to free players.
** World of warships would also introduce "Freemium ships," premium ships available through a substantial grind for resources like Free XP or completing long mission chains. Or you could just buy the resources or ships directly. Of note is that all tier IX and X premiums are of this type or competitive reward ships.

* ''VideoGame/{{RuneScape}}'' members are treated to a vastly larger game world with more servers, no ads, loads of exclusive content, weekly game updates, and a bunch of other stuff in exchange for a monthly fee. Sister site ''Website/FunOrb'' runs on a similar system.

Of course, this model isn't limited to games. It's a common business model all over the internet. Even on [[Wiki/TVTropes this very wiki]], [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/donate.php making a modest donation to the site]] will temporarily remove the advertisements from the forums. *nudge nudge*

!! Examples:

* ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' went Free-To-Play when the Uber Update was released in Summer 2011. Free (or Limited) accounts only get to store up to 50 items in their Backpack, can only receive items rather than being able to Trade or give gifts[[note]]a few items such as paints ''can'' be traded by free accounts (only when they're dropped), though, most likely a mistake[[/note]], have limited Crafting blueprints and can't get Rare (such as the Halloween Items) or Cosmetic items. Otherwise, they can get all of the regular weapons, and all game modes and maps are available to both Free and Premium accounts [[note]]Some private servers either ban free players or tag "[=F2P=]" to their names, although this is less common after changes to Quickplay rules and is really only seen on trading servers (where F2Ps have little to no business being anyway) and other private servers running custom mods not eligible for Quickplay[[/note]]. Worth mentioning is that the only requirement for "premium"/Retail is buying any item from the in-game store, which can be as cheap as $0.50; in fact, the only difference between a premium account gained from buying the game itself as opposed to something from the in-game store is [[CosmeticAward a Proof of Purchase hat]].

* ''VideoGame/MarioKart'' ''Tour'' features both this and {{Microtransactions}}. There's a monthly "Gold Pass," and by having one, players have access to extra missions to earn stars faster, as well as get greater rewards for hitting certain amounts of stars.

* A number of news websites operate this way; the websites of ''[[Website/AmericanNewspapers The New York Times]]'', ''The New Republic'', and ''Magazine/TheEconomist'' all allow you to view a certain number of articles (e.g. 10 for the ''Times'') each month, but if you want to read any articles beyond that you have to subscribe (to either the print edition or to an online-only edition) (they can tell when you've exceeded the limit through IP and device tracking). The news/culture/analysis aggregator blog [[http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/ The Dish]] by [[TheGadfly Andrew]] [[GayConservative Sullivan]] operated (before his semi-forced semi-retirement for health reasons in February 2015) on the "freemium" model as well (in this case, allowing subscribers to "read on" to more in-depth analysis more often) and actively evangelized for the system as the best way forward for digital news media.

* Tony Stark enforces this in ''[[ComicBook/IronMan Superior Iron Man]]''. He creates "Extremis 3.0" and spreads it across San Francisco, granting average everyday people heightened abilities, ShapeShifitng, and even a powerful HealingFactor, allowing them to become be look as perfect as they want. However, when he reveals that keeping it will cost ''$100 a day'', it unleashes a massive crime wave that grabs the attention, and ire, of its recently arrived protector, ComicBook/{{Daredevil}}.

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-->''Freemium! The "mium" is latin for "not really".''
--->''WesternAnimation/SouthPark''

* ''VideoGame/ClubPenguin'' accounts are upgraded via monthly subscription.

* The online music service {{Spotify}} has three tiers: Open (completely free, with advertisements and time restrictions), Unlimited (advertisements and time restrictions are removed), and Premium (no ads, no time restrictions, plus additional perks).