For media, entertainment, and gaming businesses, a single release can spur a new wave of international growth. A breakout series or game can attract subscribers across dozens of markets at once, while AI creative tools are often built for global, self-serve audiences at launch.

Stripe’s data shows how common that kind of global reach has become. In a cohort analysis of media, entertainment, and gaming businesses on Stripe, more than 60% processed cross-border payments in the first quarter of 2026. Looking at gaming businesses alone, where player bases often span multiple markets, that figure rose to 75%.

But global reach doesn’t automatically translate into recurring revenue. Competition for attention is intense, and even minor checkout friction can cost businesses subscribers. Prices shown in an unfamiliar currency can cause customers to hesitate at checkout, while payment method availability and issuer behavior affect whether the first payment goes through.

For products that are global from the start, the payment experience still needs to feel local. Stripe analyzed 15 million subscription checkout sessions across media, entertainment, and gaming businesses to understand whether local pricing helps convert more global demand—and whether those subscribers stick around over time.

How local pricing affects conversion and subscriber quality

Stripe ran a randomized experiment comparing customers offered Adaptive Pricing, which lets customers pay in their local currency, with a holdback group that checked out without it. Adaptive Pricing increased the likelihood that customers completed a subscription payment by 3.3%, and the conversion lift was 0.5 percentage points higher among customers of AI-powered businesses for users creating images, videos, and other digital content. Those tools are often global and self-serve tools, making familiar currencies especially important for a smooth checkout experience.

Stripe has also seen similar results in gaming, specifically, where businesses typically sell digital goods to a global player base. In an analysis of digital gaming businesses using Adaptive Pricing, conversion and authorization rates increased by 6% on a relative basis in the first quarter of 2026.

More people subscribed, while subscriber quality held steady

In media, entertainment, and gaming, churn rates are already challenging. An analysis of more than 2,000 of these businesses on Stripe found that average total churn was 34% in 2025. Of that, 24% was voluntary, meaning the customer chose to cancel, and 10% was involuntary, meaning the customer still might have wanted the subscription, but was dropped because a payment renewal failed. Recovering even a portion of those failed payments can have a big impact. For example, the video creation platform VEED recovered $1.8 million in payments in one year by retrying those that initially failed.

For these industries, subscription behavior is often volatile. Customers may subscribe for a single show, season, creator, or game drop, then reassess. Long-term growth depends on keeping new subscribers engaged so they stay subscribed.

Stripe found local currency pricing helped more customers complete their first subscription payment without sacrificing subscriber quality. Across the measures we tracked during the holdback experiment—including monthly revenue per subscriber, plan changes, cancellations, and retention—customers who were offered local pricing weren’t more likely to cancel or generate less monthly revenue than those who were not.

Four subscription considerations for global media, entertainment, and gaming businesses

1. Make pricing easy to understand in every market
Showing prices in a customer’s local currency and offering the payment methods they already use can make the purchase feel more trustworthy and easier to evaluate. That’s particularly important in media (including AI content creation tools), entertainment, and gaming, where subscriptions are often discretionary. If customers can’t quickly understand the price, they may decide not to subscribe at all.

Customers should continue to see prices in the same currency after the initial checkout, too. A charge for a renewal, upgrade, or payment retry is more likely to be questioned or canceled if it appears in a different currency. Businesses should disclose at checkout if exchange rates could change the renewal price.

2. Design for the gap between engagement peaks
In media, entertainment, and gaming, churn often clusters around predictable moments, like after a season finale, between releases, or at the end of a gameplay cycle. Those spikes have become more pronounced with the quick-turn cycles of social media, where around 73% of Gen Z audiences say they find new entertainment.

A release or trend can attract a new wave of subscribers, but many drop off quickly. Bundles, loyalty offers, and well-timed win-back campaigns can help keep subscribers engaged between releases and big moments.

3. Let customers choose their level of commitment
Subscription preferences vary. Some customers want the flexibility to cancel at any time; others are willing to commit for longer for a better deal. Giving customers a choice between monthly and annual plans can help match pricing to intent and improve retention. In Stripe’s 2025 media, entertainment, and gaming cohort, for example, annual subscriptions had 6% involuntary churn, compared with 12% for monthly subscriptions. Fewer renewal attempts over the course of a year can mean fewer opportunities for a payment to fail.

Price tiers have implications for churn as well. Across Stripe’s media, entertainment, and gaming cohort, subscriptions under $10 saw total churn of 44%, compared with 24% for subscriptions priced between $100 and $999. Lower-cost plans can make it easier for customers to try a service but can also make the subscription easier to replace.

4. Treat payment recovery as retention
Involuntary churn affects subscribers who still want to continue their subscriptions but are dropped when a payment fails. In a 2025 Stripe study, involuntary churn among the media, entertainment, and gaming cohort averaged 10%, higher than the overall subscription average on Stripe.

This is often recoverable revenue. Across these businesses in 2025, Smart Retries recovered approximately half of at-risk revenue from failed payments.

Fast retries, updated payment credentials, preferred local payment method availability, and direct in-product recovery flows can all help businesses keep subscribers who never meant to cancel in the first place.

Offer local subscription pricing without rebuilding your catalog

Adaptive Pricing supports local subscription pricing without separate pricing systems for each market. Adaptive Pricing helps you:

• Present subscription prices in a customer’s local currency in more than 150 countries
  
• Carry local currency information through checkout, renewals, receipts, upgrades, and recovery
  
• Continue managing your core Stripe integration and catalog in your existing currency
  
• Measure conversion, authorization, renewal performance, and subscriber value across your customer base
  

To learn more about Adaptive Pricing for media, entertainment, and gaming subscriptions, read our docs or get in touch.

Additional resources:
Benchmarks and churn management strategies for media, streaming, and gaming subscriptions
Testing the impact of Adaptive Pricing across 1.5M subscription checkout sessions
The new economics of the gaming industry
How media companies are building subscription businesses that last
How three gaming companies are getting more from their payments