https://www.superdataresearch.com/market-data/market-brief-year-in-review/ League of Legends was #1 game of the year with 1.7 billion. Nothing but respect for Riot, my wife is an active gold player (top 20%) in that game and often laments if she is 17, she would be in LOL esports for sure. I could only get to silver. Game is pure skill, anything but pay to win, freemium done right. We went to Madison Square Garden to watch two Korean teams in the semi-finals. It was amazing to see NBA-level presentation and commentary in e-sports. PC finished with 34 billion in revenue, most from freemium. But mobile games dominated with 41 billion. It was all freemium. And because of how attached we are to our phones, our time to play PC and console games go down dramatically. I play Summoners War as F2P and it seems everyone and their mother spent $99 this Christmas to buy a guaranteed random 5 star character. Console can not compete with that. Console has yet to switch to freemium, and they are really having a hard time to compete. AAA publishers and titles will be fine, but when was the last time console launched a new billion dollar franchise since mobile took over the world. I love Street Fighter V from my childhood attachments to the series, but they should have went all the way with League's freemium model instead of paying $50 up front then more for characters and skins. Top Earners of 2016: Mobile MONSTER STRIKE $1.3B CLASH OF CLANS $1.2B CLASH ROYALE $1.1B GAME OF WAR: FIRE AGE $0.91B MOBILE STRIKE $0.90B PC Freemium: LEAGUE OF LEGENDS $1.7B DUNGEON FIGHTER CHALLENGE $1.1B CROSSFIRE $1.1B WORLD OF TANKS $0.40B DOTA 2 $0.26B Console Premium: CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS III $591.1M FIFA 16 $387.4M GRAND THEFT AUTO V $378.9M TOM CLANCY’S THE DIVISION $261.8M DESTINY $214.1M PC Premium: OVERWATCH $585.6M CS: GO $257.2M GUILD WARS 2 $91.0M MINECRAFT $88.7M FALLOUT 4 $74.9M
It makes me sad to see those kind of games dominate in revenue It doesn't bode well that freemium games with timers, dual currencies, energy system etc. can rake in the money while premium games often struggle
The gap between freemium and premium on both platforms is certainly appalling. I never understood the appeal for Game of War and Mobile Strike. Those two hardly have any gameplay and outrageous timers, resulting in their awful ads barely showcasing any real gameplay elements.
I'd love to see a breakdown of mobile premium - although I might not like the figures. Surely Super Mario, Minecraft and Football Manager would have pulled in some heavy millions, though admittedly nowhere near the billion-dollar mark. Or $500m mark. Or $200m mark...
Just got done watching The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug, and I can't help but feel we're the Dwarves. We lost our kingdom, and we're never getting it back. There's no chink in the armor of our Smaug. I don't foresee a popular revolt against freemium.
In some ways, I'm not surprised. Mobile gaming is like the "fast food" of gaming. There are some gems in there, but it's mostly "meh". However, "meh" can still generate lots of revenue when the masses of consumers are there.
