A quarter of all PlayStation Store spend goes to free-to-play games

A quarter of the money that PlayStation users spend on Sony’s PlayStation Store goes to free-to-play games such as Fortnite, Apex Legends and Warzone. This is evident from a presentation by Sony. Four years ago this was only 5 percent.

Sony sells full digital games, DLC and subscriptions through its PlayStation Store. Of all spend in the download store, 25 percent went to in-game purchases on free-to-play games in the financial year. In the 2016 financial year, this was only 5 percent.

The rise of free games like Fortnite, Apex Legends and Call of Duty: Warzone has caused this shift. Such games are played by tens of millions of players. The games are free, but the makers earn a lot of money with the sale of skins and battle passes. Sony also cites Genshin Impact and Rocket League as free-to-play titles that players spend a lot on.

Sony also benefits from the high income from those free games, as the platform holder receives a 30 percent commission on all expenditures made in the PlayStation Store. The amount that players spend on free-to-play games in Sony’s download store is unknown, but it is believed that this amounts to billions annually. The total revenue that only Epic Games has achieved with Fortnite in recent years is estimated to be more than 14 billion dollars.

The details are in Sony’s presentation to investors. It also emerged that there will be a PC version of Uncharted 4 and that Sony plans to sell the PlayStation 5 directly to consumers in the Benelux, without the intervention of shops.