In the face of its astronomical popularity, Fortnite is still being best by Call of Duty: World War II and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds in digital earnings, at least for the month of February.
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According to games and interactive media intelligence company SuperData, Call of Duty: World War II was the highest-earning digital game on console, while Fortnite: Battle Royale was only third. Meanwhile on PC, Fortnite landed at number six, while PUBG came in one spot higher at number five.
As you can see, not only does Fortnite have Call of Duty: World War II to surpass on consoles, it also has EA’s juggernaut FIFA 18, and its huge digital earnings cache that is Ultimate Team. On PC, Fortnite has even farther to go with multiple games ahead of it, including the ever-present, and often chart-topping, League of Legends. On PC specifically, developer Epic Games will hope it can leap over it’s biggest space rival, PUBG, in the coming months.
SuperData does note that Fortnite earned more in additional content revenue than any other console game, except Call of Duty, which unlike Fortnite, isn’t free-to-play.
As for PUBG, its PC unit sales continued to decline for a second straight month, but was alleviated by sales on Xbox One.
Elsewhere in its report, SuperData notes that digital video games market grew 6 percent year-over-year in February to $9.1 billion. The following was also revealed:
Social and Pay-to-Play PC segment shrank 1 percent and 8 percent, respectively.
The Premium PC segment experienced growth of 33 percent.
The console markets increased 34 percent year-over-year.
Mobile grew a modest 4 percent.
Free-to-play PC fell a slight 4 percent.
The free-to-play console segment rose an astronomical 359 percent year-on-year, thanks to Fortnite: Battle Royale.
One may think that since Fortnite is the most popular game in the world that it would be earning the most digital revenue. However, in this case its free-to-play model hurts it. Where other games get revenue from game sales, Fortnite: Battle Royale is only racking in cosmetic purchases. Games like Call of Duty: World War II not only have in-game purchases and DLC packs, they have revenue coming from actual purchases of the game, which goes a long way in pumping up revenue numbers.
