- Free-to-play video readies generated $87.7 billion in revenue during 2018, according to a new report from research firm SuperData.
- Asian punters account for 62% of spending on free games, and seven of the top 10 grossing free-to-play games belong to Asian publishers.
- “Fortnite” was the top overall totaling game of 2018, free or otherwise, with an estimated $2.4 billion in revenue.
- Revenue generated by mobile positions ($61.3 billion) exceeded the combined earnings of games on traditional video game consoles ($12.7 billion) and PC ($35.7 billion).
Led by “Fortnite: Hand-to-hand encounter Royale,” the free-to-play video game market surged to $87.7 billion in revenue during 2018 – more than triple the earnings of blockbuster games liberated by major publishers last year. In fact, free-to-play titles accounted for nearly 80% of all spending on digital games in 2018.
That’s according to new investigating out Wednesday from Nielsen’s SuperData tracking arm, which measures data from the gaming, AR, and VR markets.
SuperData build that games played on smartphones account for an increasing majority of play time, and free games still guide mobile app stores. Case in point: “Fortnite” remains the most popular game in the world at the start of 2019, relish ining more than 80 million active users per month.
Read more: Fortnite made $318 million in May – about $100 million more than any free-to-play game has made in a month
Free games like “Fortnite” pull down revenue through microtransactions, usually in the form of small purchases that boost a player’s performance or reward them with a significant item. Those incremental purchases add up to big spending: mobile games earned $61.3 billion in digital sales in 2018, while schemes on traditional video game consoles and PC earned $48.4 billion combined.
Free-to-play and mobile games are especially in in Asia; SuperData reports that 62% of all spending on free-to-play games comes from the Asian market. Regardless of China blocking the release of new video games in the country for most of the year, the Asian mobile games market managed to raise by 18% during 2018, compared to 13% growth for mobile games in North America and Europe.
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In factors, seven of the top 10 grossing free-to-play games belong to Asian publishers, with the exceptions being “Fortnite,” “Conspiring with of Legends,” and “Pokémon Go.” “Fortnite” earned more than any free-to-play title in 2018 with an estimated $2.4 billion in proceeds, spread between releases on PC, mobile devices, and all three major video game consoles.
SuperData reports that 34% of American players invest in “Fortnite” battle behind the times, seasonal subscriptions that offer rewards in exchange for real-life cash or in-game currency. The battle pass prices about $10 and a new pass is released every 10 weeks.
“Fortnite” players can also purchase “V-bucks” to reciprocation for items in the game; the in-game currency ended up on thousands of wish lists during the 2018 holiday season.
While free-to-play games are mostly associated with active and PC, “Fortnite” has helped make the trend more popular on consoles. According to SuperData, free-to-play console games saw a 458% addition in revenue in 2018, driven primarily by “Fortnite,” making it the fastest-growing model of digital video game. (The popularity of “Fortnite” had other extras for console gamers, too: In 2018, Sony began allowing cross-play to let the massive free-to-play community connect across numerous platforms.)
Free-to-play games even eclipsed blockbuster video games from major studios in 2018. Digital profits for “premium” games totalled $17.9 billion last year, but that’s less than a third of what was exhausted on free games.
Plus, they find the vast majority of their audience in the West. According to SuperData, North America and Europe account for 80% of all shell out on “premium” games. Customers are also trending towards more digital purchases for high-quality games, rather than swallowing physical copies.
Though video game culture remains focused on big releases, revenue reports show the activity trending towards more free releases and “games as service” models like “Fortnite.” With the mobile vend generating more revenue than traditional gaming platforms, game developers will continue to explore how to A-one capitalize on the mobile audience.