While Fortnite was the top earner in 2018, PUBG was the top earning premium game of 2018. The report notes that the revenue from PUBG Mobile was not taken into consideration.
When someone mentions battle royale games, there are usually two that spring to mind, Fortnite Battle Royale and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG). These two games were very popular in 2018 and it should be no surprise that they made their respective developers (Epic Games and Bluehole) a lot of money. According to a report by SuperData (via gamesindustry.biz), Fortnite was the top earner in 2018, earning $2.4 billion in digital revenue last year. SuperData also cited Fortnite as a key factor in pushing digital games revenue up by 11% to $108 billion in 2018. Further, the report noted that the free-to-play was the dominant business model and accounted for 80% of all digital games revenue in 2018 (about $88 billion), out of which 62% was earned in Asia.
While Fortnite dominated the revenue charts, its closest rival, PUBG did pretty well as well. According to SuperData’s report, the game was the top earner when looking at premium games. The game generated a revenue of $1.028 billion last year. However, the report notes that this amount only includes the revenue from PC, Xbox and PlayStation versions of the game and not mobile. If the data from PUBG Mobile was taken into consideration, then it’s possible that PUBG would be amongst the highest earning games of 2018.
These were the top ten free-to-play games by revenue for 2018 as per SuperData:
1. Fortnite, Epic Games – $2.4 billion
2. Dungeon Fighter Online, Nexon – $1.5 billion
3. League of Legends, Riot Games, Tencent – $1.4 billion
4. Pokemon GO, Niantic – $1.3 billion
5. Crossfire, Neowiz Games – $1.3 billion
6. Honour of Kings, Tencent – $1.3 billion
7. Fate/Grand Order, Aniplex – $1.2 billion
8. Candy Crush Saga, King, Activision Blizzard – $1.1 billion
9. Monster Strike, Mixi – $1.0 billion
10. Clash Royale, Supercell, Tencent – $0.9 billion
Here’s the list of the top ten premium games by revenue for 2018, according to SuperData:
1. PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, Bluehole – $1.028 billion
2. FIFA 18, Electronic Arts – $790 million
3. Grand Theft Auto V, Take-Two Interactive – $628 million
4. Call of Duty: Black Ops IIII, Activision Blizzard – $612 million
5. Red Dead Redemption 2, Take-Two Interactive – $516 million
6. Call of Duty: WWII, Activision Blizzard – $506 million
7. FIFA 19, Electronic Arts – $482 million
8. Monster Hunter: World, Capcom – $467 million
9. Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege, Ubisoft – $440 million
10. Overwatch, Activision Blizzard – $429 million
The list does offer some interesting insight on other games as well. While it’s popularly dwindled by quite a bit since its launch a few years back, Pokemon Go netted its developer Niantic $1.3 billion. This was enough to propel it to the fourth spot in the list of top free-to-play games by revenue. It should be noted that while PUBG Mobile was not featured on the same list, its developer, Tencent, has three games listed.
Coming to the list of top ten premium games by revenue, the third spot is taken by take-Two interactive’s Grand Theft Auto V, a game that was released way back in 2013. The newest game from the same developer, Red Dead Redemption 2 is already on the fifth spot. Considering the fact that the new game was launched in October this year, it is quite possible that it will be higher up on that list come next year.
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