'Fortnite' and other free games raked in more than $87 billion last year, and the rest of the gaming industry is starting to take note

Epic Games

• Free-to-play video games generated $87.7 billion in revenue during 2018, according to a new report from research firm SuperData.
• Asian players account for 62% of spending on free games, and seven of the top 10 grossing free-to-play games belong to Asian publishers.
• "Fortnite" was the top grossing game of 2018, free or otherwise, with an estimated $2.4 billion in revenue.
• Revenue generated by mobile games ($61.3 billion) exceeded the combined earnings of games on traditional video game consoles ($12.7 billion) and PC ($35.7 billion).

Led by "Fortnite: Battle Royale," the free-to-play video game market surged to $87.7 billion in revenue during 2018 — more than triple the earnings of blockbuster games released by major publishers last year. In fact, free-to-play titles accounted for nearly 80% of all spending on digital games in 2018.

That's according to new research out Wednesday from Nielsen's SuperData tracking arm, which measures data from the gaming, AR, and VR markets. 

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from Business Insider https://read.bi/2FLTERj