SuperData’s 2016 gaming year in review is now available for free on the market research firm’s website. And it’s got some pretty staggering claims that, while seeming outlandish at first, make sense — from a certain point of view.
On the top of page 9 of the report is the headline “Free-to-play MMOs have 92% of the MMO market players and generate 87% of the revenue,” with a total of $21.1 billion in revenue. That had us scratching our heads a bit. I mean, sure there are a lot of F2P MMOs out there, but are World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy XIV that insignificant?
As usual, SuperData is very liberal with its definition of “MMO.” mixes “MMO” and “MOBA” elsewhere on the page as it refers to Dota 2 and League of Legends under the headline “F2P MMOs continue to dominate the eSports world while earning themselves increasing exposure.” The middle paragraph talks about MOBAs, however, as a separate category. I’d imagine “F2P MMO” includes pretty much anything we’d cover here on MMOBomb.
In that context, taking big MOBAs and games that aren’t big in NA/EU but are in other regions, like Dungeon Fighter Challenge and Crossfire, I could see the 92%/87% numbers as legit. Obviously, this total wouldn’t include primarily single-player games that did big business in 2016, like The Witcher 3 or Fallout 4.
Some other interesting F2P-related numbers to digest in SuperData’s report:
The report’s got a lot more on mobile games (Pokémon Go was large), e-sports, Twitch/YouTube viewership, VR, and console games, so if numbers are your thing, give it a download and check it out for yourself.
So, by définition, it’s not F2P. QED.
No edit!! It’s*
first = its , second = it’s
See why would Riot games sell the rest of it’d shares if its doing that sort of money ??
True. I can’t even afford to play MMOs I want to but the way F2P MMOs act they mostly spam the market with them to try to profit.
Also everybody cries about but the graphics suck make the graphics better? Who cares it’s why I don’t play xbox and I’m likely going back to single player games for a while since it doesn’t offer a micro currency or a VIP membership. Just a game and a console/PC and yourself. It will be lonely but at least the single player game developers aren’t after your wallet like the F2P MMO game developers are.
You are the one giving them the wallet tho they are not taking it from you xD