Two of the biggest battle royale games right now are Fortnite Battle Royale and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUGB). In 2018, Fortnite reportedly hit $2.4 billion in digital revenue while PUGB made $1.028 billion according to a SuperData report via GamesIndustry.biz. This means that Fortnite was the top gross free-to-play game in the world last year. However, revenue from PUBG Mobile was not considered in the report.
Fortnite generates most of its revenue by selling character skins and emotes like dance moves. And 34% of all US players bought a seasonal “battle pass.”
Photo: Fortnite / Epic Games
SuperData also pointed out that Fortnite was one of the biggest reasons why digital game revenue as a whole was up by 11% to $108 billion last year. And free-to-play was the most popular business model for games with 80% of all digital game revenue last year at around $88 billion. And of this total revenue, 62% was generated in Asia.
Here is a break down of the top ten free-to-play games based revenue for 2018 from the report:
Fortnite, Epic Games – $2.4 billion
Dungeon Fighter Online, Nexon – $1.5 billion
League of Legends, Riot Games, Tencent – $1.4 billion
Pokemon GO, Niantic – $1.3 billion
Crossfire, Neowiz Games – $1.3 billion
Honour of Kings, Tencent – $1.3 billion
Fate/Grand Order, Aniplex – $1.2 billion
Candy Crush Saga, King, Activision Blizzard – $1.1 billion
Monster Strike, Mixi – $1.0 billion
Clash Royale, Supercell, Tencent – $0.9 billion
And here is a breakdown of the top ten premium games based on revenue for 2018 from the report:
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, Bluehole – $1.028 billion
FIFA 18, Electronic Arts – $790 million
Grand Theft Auto V, Take-Two Interactive – $628 million
Call of Duty: Black Ops IIII, Activision Blizzard – $612 million
Red Dead Redemption 2, Take-Two Interactive – $516 million
Call of Duty: WWII, Activision Blizzard – $506 million
FIFA 19, Electronic Arts – $482 million
Monster Hunter: World, Capcom – $467 million
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege, Ubisoft – $440 million
Overwatch, Activision Blizzard – $429 million
