Epic Games
- "Fortnite" continues to be the biggest game in the world, with tens of millions of monthly players across seven different platforms.
- Even though the game is free, it managed to pull in nearly $2.5 billion in 2018, according to Nielsen's SuperData tracking arm.
- "Fortnite" offers a seasonal Battle Pass, which costs $10 and is wildly popular. More than one-third of US players are buying the Battle Pass, according to SuperData.
"Fortnite" continues to dominate the attention of tens of millions of players around the world.
Despite the fact that it's a free game, "Fortnite" brings in billions of dollars through sales of virtual items, sales of virtual money, and the ever-important seasonal Battle Pass.
More specifically: "Fortnite" made $2.4 billion in 2018, according to Nielsen's SuperData tracking arm.
That's the first overall revenue number for "Fortnite" that we've seen for a full calendar year of availability. The game's maker, Epic Games, hasn't released revenue numbers for "Fortnite."
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"Fortnite" first arrived in the summer of 2017, with the now ubiquitous "Battle Royale" mode arriving as a free update in September 2017.
The rest of 2017 and early 2018 was focused on putting "Fortnite" on more platforms.
By late summer 2018, the game was available on seven different gaming platforms: PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, PC, Mac, iOS, and Android.
Players on any platform can play with any other platform. "Fortnite" is the first truly cross-platform game; it even forced Sony to abandon its exclusionary stance on cross-platform gaming.
Epic Games
It's no surprise, then, that "Fortnite" is estimated to have grossed over $2.4 billion in 2018 across those many platforms.
With tens of millions of players around the world buying Battle Passes, and in-game items, and converting their real money into "V-Bucks," the game was able to amass billions in revenue without charging any upfront cost to consumers - a game-changer in an era of $60 blockbuster games.
That makes it the highest-earning free-to-play game of 2018, as well as the highest-earning game of the year, according to SuperData. It also puts "Fortnite" earnings above "Red Dead Redemption 2," and "Call of Duty," and every other big game you can think of that arrived in 2018.
And there's no sign of it slowing down any time soon.
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