‘League of Legends generates 1.6 billion euros in revenue from microtransactions’

With free-to-play game League of Legends, according to SuperData Research, a turnover of 1.6 billion euros this year. In paid games, CoD: Black Ops III scores highest on consoles and Overwatch on PC. Both games are good for more than half a billion euros in turnover.

Market researcher SuperData Research, which focuses on the game industry, has published the figures in an annual overview. The company states that the game market as a whole this year has so far accounted for a turnover of 91 billion dollars, converted 87 billion euros.

Mobile games bring in the most money: 40.6 billion dollars. The PC follows in second place, with $35.8 billion. Most of the revenue comes from free games with microtransactions, both in apps and PC games.

League of Legends is the best on PC with a turnover of 1.7 billion dollars. For mobile games, Monster Strike, Clash of Clans, and Clash Royale, each with revenues of more than $1 billion. The figures show that the free games are especially popular in Asia. Europeans and Americans spend much less money on the free-to-play games.

Games for consoles have achieved sales of $6.6 billion so far this year. That’s much less than the PC games market, but if you only look at paid games, the console has an edge. According to the researchers, 196 million console gamers are active in that category every month. The group of PC gamers is smaller with 154 million monthly users and they spent $5.4 billion on premium games.

With $591 million on consoles, Call of Duty: Black Ops III is the game with the most money. FIFA 16 and GTA:V are in second and third place with $387 million and $379 million. The turnover is generated from the sale of the games and dlc, but also from the microtransactions. Overwatch brings in the most money on the PC with a turnover of $586 million. CS:GO is in second place with $257 million.

SuperData Research also provides insight into the number of VR headsets sold. According to the research, 355,000 Oculus Rifts have been sold so far, the HTC Vive has sold 420,000 units and the PSVR leads the way with 745,000 units. The figures are comparable to a recently published market survey by Canalys.