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Fortnite Earned $2.4 Billion Last Year, 'The Most Annual Revenue Of Any Game In History'

by Elise Favis on Jan 19, 2019 at 05:00 PM

Fortnite has been an incredible, record-breaking success with its free-to-play battle royale formula. According to a recent report from SuperData, not only was Fortnite the top grossing free game of 2018, it also brought in "the most annual revenue of any game in history" with $2.4 billion thanks to its skins, emotes, and season passes.

The report says that free-to-play games earned a whopping $87.7 billion last year as a whole. This accounts for 80% of 2018's $109.8 billion in digital games revenue.

Although free-to-play games have become a popular business model, premium games are still hugely successful, especially in the West. Premium games brought in $17.8 billion total revenue in 2018. Some of the biggest grossing paid games that released last year include FIFA 18 ($790 million), Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 ($612 million), and Red Dead Redemption 2 ($516 million). 

Even Netflix can't ignore Fortnite's growing prominence, stating that instead of seeing TV networks like HBO as their biggest rivals, the real competition is Fortnite

[Source: SuperData]

Products In This Article

Fortnitecover

Fortnite

Platform:
PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, PC, Mac, iOS, Android
Release Date:
July 25, 2017 (PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, Mac), 
April 2, 2018 (iOS), 
June 12, 2018 (Switch), 
August 9, 2018 (Android), 
November 10, 2020 (Xbox Series X/S), 
November 12, 2020 (PlayStation 5)