According to a recent report by market research firm SuperData, League of Legends was also the game with the highest earnings in 2015.
League of Legends Unchallenged at Number 1
The MOBA from Riot Games leads the revenue ranking of the highest-grossing video games from SuperData by a significant margin. Estimated at $1.626 billion, the game brought in revenue for its operators. Only three other games managed to exceed the magical mark of $1 billion in revenue last year: two on PC, popular primarily in Asia (CrossFire and Dungeon Fighter Online) and one on mobile devices (Clash of Clans).
Publisher of WoW and Destiny Leads the Market
While Riot Games can celebrate the highest-grossing single game, publisher Activision Blizzard can also pop the champagne: measured by revenue, they remain the market leader in the computer and video game sector in 2015. Several blockbuster games from the publisher made it to the upper ranks of the SuperData list, such as World of Warcraft with $814 million, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare ($355 million), Destiny ($291 million), and CoD: Black Ops III with $212 million in revenue.
PC is the Highest-Grossing Platform, but Consoles Are Also Rising Significantly
When looking at the platforms individually, PC games achieved the highest total revenue of $32 billion. Games on mobile devices brought in $25 billion.
The console games only accounted for $4 billion. Here, digital sales (often through microtransactions) are still not as widespread as on PC or mobile. However, the $4 billion represents a 34 percent increase compared to the previous year. The console charts were almost exclusively dominated by Activision (Call of Duty series) and EA (FIFA series and Madden NFL). Only Bethesda and Take-Two managed to break into the upper ranks, thanks to Fallout 4 and GTA V.
Across platforms, $61 billion was generated through digital sales for game developers and publishers, which is 8% more than the previous year. Below are the rankings from SuperData, sorted by platform.
Digital Revenues 2015: PC
1. League of Legends (Tencent/Riot Games) –$1.628 billion (The English billion stands for billion)
2. CrossFire (SmileGate) — $1.110 billion
3. Dungeon Fighter Online (Neople) — $1.052 billion
4. World of Warcraft (Activision) — $814 million
5. World of Tanks (Wargaming.net) — $446 million
6. Lineage I (NCSoft Corporation) — $339 million
7. Maplestory (Nexon) — $253 million
8. Dota 2 (Valve Corporation) — $238 million
9. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (Valve Corporation) — $221 million
10. Grand Theft Auto V (Take-Two Interactive) — $205 million
Digital Revenues 2015: Console
1. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (Activision) — $355 million
2. FIFA 15 (Electronic Arts) — $332 million
3. Grand Theft Auto V (Take-Two Interactive) — $322 million
4. Destiny (Activision) — $291 million
5. Call of Duty: Black Ops III (Activision) — $224 million
6. FIFA 16 (Electronic Arts) — $212 million
7. Fallout 4 (Bethesda Softworks) $108 million
8. Star Wars Battlefront (Electronic Arts) — $106 million
9. Madden NFL 16 (Electronic Arts) — $76 million
10. Madden NFL 15 (Electronic Arts) — $73 million
Digital Revenues 2015: Mobile
1. Clash of Clans (Supercell) — $1.345 billion
2. Game of War: Fire Age (Machine Zone) — $799 million
3. Puzzle & Dragons (Gungho Online Ent. Inc.) — $729 million
4. Candy Crush Saga (King Digital) — $682 million
5. MonsterStrike (Mixi) — $674 million
6. Candy Crush Soda Saga (King Digital) — $518 million
7. Fantasy Westward Journey (NetEase) — $451 million
8. Colopl Rune Story (Colopl Ni Inc.) — $356 million
9. Disney Tsum Tsum (Line Corp.) — $326 million
10. Boom Beach (Supercell) — $297 million
