League of Legends Tops Free-to-Play Revenue Charts in 2017

A new report detailing which free-to-play PC games earned the most revenue in 2017 ranks League of Legends as the most profitable game with over $2 billion generated.

The report in question from SuperData Research was released today and details various points of gaming interest with stats, revenue, and plenty of charts to sift through. However, the chart showing the rankings of free-to-play PC games shows just how dominant League of Legends still is over other games with the next game in line coming in second place with several million dollars less than League earned.

SuperData Research’s chart that’s seen below (via MMOs.com) lists just how much revenue League brought in during 2017 with a huge figure totaling $2.1B, the next closest figure being Dungeon Fighter Online at $1.6B and third place going to CrossFire at $1.4B.

What’s even more impressive is that this figure put up by Riot Games’ massive MOBA actually went up from the previous year’s revenue with SuperData Research reporting that the game earned $1.8B in revenue during 2016. Continually updated player numbers aren’t something that Riot Games releases often, but this figure shows without a doubt that a massive amount of players are still playing League after all these years, and they’re having no problems with taking part in the game’s various in-game purchases.

Champion skins, ward skins, player profile images known as Summoner Icons, and more recently emotes are all cosmetic items that can be purchased through the game’s in-client store, each of them having no actual influence on gameplay. Champions themselves can also be purchased with real money, all of this funneled through the games premium currency known as Riot Points.

It’s also worth taking note of the company that publishes the top three games. After striking a deal with Riot Games within the past few years, Tencent has shown that the gaming behemoth obviously knows what its doing with its games with League of Legends, Dungeon Fighter Online, and CrossFire all published by Tencent with Riot Games and Nexon for the last two of the three games.

The full report from SuperData Research can be downloaded for free after filling out a few fields to see more gaming news and figures.