Gamers spent $8.9 billion on digital games and add-ons in January, an increase of 11 percent year over year. According to SuperData Research’s monthly digital game sales report, digital console sales grew a staggering 57 percent year over year thanks to some high-profile game launches.
A large release of triple-A titles including Destiny 2 and Star Wars: Battlefront II propelled digital console sales over last year. Call of Duty: WWII is still going strong compared to its predecessor, Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare. Activision’s yearly Call of Duty installment maintained the number one spot on digital console revenue charts for January.
Mobile and Free-to-Play MMO segments continued to grow at 11 percent and one percent, respectively, SuperData reported. Social and Pay-to-Play MMO segments, however, continued to drop. Social game revenue dropped five percent and Pay-to-Play MMO income dropped nine percent in January.
Monster Releases
Dragon Ball FighterZ is the most successful fighting game digital console launch of all time. The hit title from Bandai Namco was the number six best-selling console game for the month of January, despite launching late in the month.
SuperData says that many factors attributed to the game’s success, but Dragon Ball‘s worldwide popularity was the primary reason. When Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite failed to deliver the team-based fighting game fans had come to expect from the franchise—including a number of graphical issues—a well-polished Dragon Ball FighterZ filled the void. As always, marketing played a major role in the game’s success, as well.
“Bandai Namco handled [Dragon Ball FighterZ] marketing to the western audience very well, leveraging Game Informer and E3 (winning several “Best of E3″ awards) to build hype months prior to the game’s release,” Reginald McKim, market analyst at SuperData told AListDaily.
Bandai Namco announced that over 2 million copies of Dragon Ball FighterZ had been shipped as of February 2.
Capcom’s Monster Hunter: World is traditionally a Japanese-heavy IP but found international success, reaching the number two spot for digital console sales in January—no small feat considering the game launched January 26.
SuperData estimates that Monster Hunter World and Dragon Ball FighterZ sold over 1.5 million digital console units last month.
Watch Out For Overwatch
Activision Blizzard’s breakout hit Overwatch held its number 10 spot for digital PC revenue. Combined additional content revenue across both platforms doubled year-over-year, SuperData noted. With over 15 million MAU in January, the game is in a strong position as Overwatch League (OWL) continues into March.
Blizzard’s World of Warcraft held its number seven spot on the PC list. Digital revenue for premium PC grew 24 percent last month overall.
Battling For Supremacy
The ultimate battle royale is taking place between Epic Games’ Fortnite and Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds as both titles compete in the popular genre. The two leading battle royale titles earned over $200 million in digital revenue from console and PC last month. While PUBG defended the number five spot for digital PC, Fornite: Battle Royale rose three spots in January to number five on the digital console charts.
Epic recently announced plans to abandon its MOBA Paragon in order to divert all resources to Fortnite, which hit record high engagement in January.