The most digitally lucrative games in 2017 are not new releases, but old games. Only a few in the top 10 lists of 2017 regarding digital revenue were released that year. Thus, the 4-year-old Grand Theft Auto V beats the new Destiny 2 on PS4 and Xbox One.
In the news pages of the gaming industry, it’s about the daily occurrences. The current games are making headlines:
- What troubles are there with Destiny 2?
- What record has PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds broken this time?
- What is EA doing with the loot boxes in Star Wars Battlefront 2?
However, the “naked numbers” paint a different picture of the gaming industry. The analysis firm SuperData has released a report on which games generated the most digital revenue in 2017.
The digital revenue from the platform providers’ shops or through in-game sales, the microtransactions, is becoming increasingly important for games, while physical sales have been declining for years.
What are Games-as-a-Service and why are they the big winners in gaming 2017?
In terms of digital revenue, the so-called “Games as-a-service.” dominate. These are games that, at first glance, have little in common and span across all genres and platforms.
FIFA and Grand Theft Auto V, Hearthstone and LoL, Destiny 2 and Minecraft have, at first glance, no commonalities, but all belong to the Games-as-a-service.
The games are characterized by the following features:
- They are multiplayer games
- They have a strong online component
- They rely on microtransactions
- And they are usually supplied with content for years.
This leads to strange blooms. In the past, games only made money at release and perhaps with expansions and sequels later. But today, the “revenue curve” for Games-as-a-Service looks different. A popular example here is FIFA 17, which generates almost consistently high revenue over a full year until the successor is released.
The winners of 2017 on consoles: Oldies beat newcomers
This trend means that the strongest game in 2017 in digital revenue on PS4 and Xbox One is the 4-year-old “Grand Theft Auto V” (2013).
Also, FIFA 17 (2016) made more money in 2017 than almost all other games that were released this year. Only Call of Duty: WW2 ranks higher.
So it is true what Activision says, that Destiny 2 and CoD:WW2 are the most successful new titles in 2017, but they are just the most successful titles that were also released this year. Neither can match GTA V.
Even older games like Call of Duty: Black Ops III (2015), Rainbow Six Siege (2015), or Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare (2016) have generated enough digital revenue to make it into the top 10.
The level of the figures shows that microtransactions and digital revenue on PS4 and Xbox One are not yet as widespread as on PC or mobile, but they are coming.
The winners of 2017 in premium games on PC: Fresh wind
On PC, there is indeed something like fresh wind in paid games: With PUBG, there is a current game in 1st place, which has generated almost twice as much as the second-placed Overwatch from 2016.
But in 3rd place, there’s an oldie: Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is from 2012, making it older than GTA V, which appears at 5 on PC. However, on PC, Destiny 2 beats GTA V significantly despite the very late PC release.
With “Divinity: Original Sin 2,” the only single-player game that has shone in digital revenue can be found here.
Surprisingly: Guild Wars 2 ranks 8th, being the only paid MMORPG in the top 10. Here, a problem of SuperData shows: It seems they cannot access all the numbers from MMORPGs for this statistic – perhaps games like WoW, Final Fantasy XIV, or The Elder Scrolls Online would actually rank higher on the list, but their numbers are likely not publicly accessible.
The winners in Free2Play games on PC: LoL and games that no one here knows
With League of Legends, a two-billion title stands at the top of digital revenue among Free2Play games on PC. LoL has been running its rounds alone for years. It is from 2009.
LoL is already old, but still considerably younger than the most popular games from Asia like Dungeon Fighter Online (2005) and CrossFire (2007).
Surprisingly: Blade & Soul and the cute MapleStory both make it into the top 10.
In the top 10 table, several games appear that probably say nothing to westerners, or are “very niche” like Roblox. PC gaming, especially in the Free2Play area, is often a regional affair. Only a few games work worldwide like League of Legends.
Mobile games have the most billion-dollar titles in 2017: 5 billion-games
There are as many as 5 billion-dollar titles among mobile games. Mobile games rely heavily on microtransactions, as they almost exclusively offer Free2Play.
Here, the unofficial mobile version of League of Legends, Arena of Valor (in China: Honour of Kings), ranks high with almost 2 billion dollars in digital revenue. The MOBA breaks record after record in Asia and has now also been released in Europe and North America. Allegedly, 108 million women play this alone.
Pokemon GO also holds its ground well in the charts at 9. The fresh “Lineage 2 Revolution”, a mobile game with MMORPG elements, ranks at 7.
These were the digital revenues of 2017. Many games are included that are not often talked about but still make their rounds. How 2018 could develop, we will shed light on in this article:
