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A new study has revealed how much massively popular titles such as Grand Theft Auto V, Call of Duty: Warzone, FIFA 20, and more made over the course of 2020, and breaks down the income figures by the minute. Revenue numbers across the entire gaming industry spiked dramatically last year thanks to a variety of factors including the launch of both the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S as well as the COVID-19 pandemic.
While many industries were initially hit hard and continue to suffer because of COVID-19, gaming became one of the few markets that actually flourished during the crisis. With people all over the world forced to stay at home, many turned to video games as not only a way to entertain themselves, but also to keep up social interactions. As a result, developers and publishers reaped massive financial gains throughout 2020 and now a new report breaks down the numbers by title.
Taking things into account beyond traditional sales such as digital downloads, micro-transactions, and DLC items, the team at NetBet calculated that Call of Duty: Warzone brought in the most revenue in 2020 as it was just shy of reaching $2 billion dollars. That is over $5 million dollars per day or more specifically $3,633.94 per minute for the "free-to-play" battle royale. FIFA 20 was second on the list with just over $1 billion in total revenue or $2,054.79 per minute. Somewhat surprisingly, the nearly eight-year-old GTA V rounded out the top three mainly thanks to GTA Online earning an average of $1,733.26 every minute.
NetBet also calculated the percentage revenue increase for the top titles from 2019 to 2020. Once again, Warzone takes the top spot with nearly 200-percent revenue growth from one calendar year to the next. FIFA 20 also shot up by 114.29 percent, though it is unclear if this is in respect to FIFA 19 since the franchise has annual releases. Rounding out the top three is actually the MOBA Honor of Kings, which is available for the iOS and Android mobile platforms in the Chinese market.
The numbers these games generate are staggering, especially those like Warzone that are considered free-to-play. It will be interesting to see how the numbers change from 2020 to 2021 as the situation surrounding COVID-19 develops and lockdown restrictions begin to ease. Even though some parts of the world have started returning to pre-pandemic lifestyles, there are growing concerns over rising cases of the delta variant. It is a strange mix of circumstances that might make things such as revenue growth hard to predict going forward, especially for a market that thrived during a global crisis.
Source: NetBet
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August 07, 2021 at 12:11AM
