League of Legends Nets $624 Million Total in Revenue Last Year

[Alex Co]

League of Legends Nets $624 Million Total in Revenue Last Year

League of Legends came in second for free-to-play games when it comes to revenue in 2013.

Riot Games' Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) title League of Legends managed to total $624 million in revenue for 2013, placing it as the second highest earning free-to-play title according to SuperData's report. While this an impressive sum, it was bested by Korean F2P shooter, CrossFire, which managed to earn $957 million last year. Valve managed to break the top ten with two titles, as Counter-Strike Online brought in $121 million, while Team Fortress 2 settled at the ninth spot with $139 million.

The full top ten list along with the games' earnings in 2013 can be seen below.


1) CrossFire $957 million
2) League of Legends $624 million
3) Dungeon Fighter Online $426 million
4) World of Tanks $372 million
5) Maplestory $326 million
6) Lineage II $257 million
7) World of Warcraft $213 million
8) Star Wars: The Old Republic $139 million
9) Team Fortress 2 $139 million
10) Counter-Strike Online $121 million


As a whole, the digital games market in the US grew by 11%, which translated to $11.7 billion in sales for 2013. The F2P market showed the biggest growth increasing by 45% year-on-year, while mobile games represented the biggest cut of the pie with a 26% share.

Are you surprised at how much money F2P games earn these days and do you think gaming is headed to a F2P future?

Source: GameSpot [http://www.superdataresearch.com/blog/us-digital-games-market/]

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[Caiphus]

$624 million in revenue

free-to-play

[Insert general snarkiness]

Ah well, good for them, I suppose. They've made a game that people enjoy, and found a business model that suits it perfectly. Bravo. Shame I don't play the game. The only thing left for me to do is to go off and be bitter about the fact that people like something that I don't.

Harrumph.

 

[CpT_x_Killsteal]

But... It thought World of Warcraft was a Subscription based game? And SWTOR just had basically a trial version (although I think that may have changed when I wasn't looking).

 

[Caiphus]

But... It thought World of Warcraft was a Subscription based game? And SWTOR just had basically a trial version (although I think that may have changed when I wasn't looking).

It seems, although this is odd, that the data only counts microtransaction revenue for WoW. This would make sense since even if WoW had "only", say, 3 million subscribers paying $15 pm ($180 pa), they would have made US$540m instead of the much lower figure in the OP.

And SWToR is "free-to-play" now. As in, you can get to the previous level cap for free. Aside from that, though, you need to pay for almost everything. Including, I believe (confirm/deny?) the ability to wear epic quality gear and the recent expansion in order to get to the current level cap.

 

[milijanko]

How the hell did DOTA2 not make the top ten?

I'm more curious from where did they pull the numbers for TF2 and CS:O. Because as far as I know Valve does not disclose that kind of information openly for any of their games. Sometimes Gabe or someone from Valve will drop some info on some slides or during some interview, but you cant find a full financial report for their games. Or can you?

Also I would like to know what are the net incomes per game to see which game is actually the most profitable one.

 

[BrotherRool]

Seeing this list and thinking 'I must make a free-to-play game' is the same massive mistake that all the failed WoW clones made but worse. These games are making this much money because they're the absolute biggest in the world and have massively more people playing them than their competitors.

Even within the top 10 there was a drop-off of nearly 90% profit between first and tenth place. And it's only going to get worse the further you are from the top. I wouldn't be surprised if the 20th game was struggling to reach 10 million a year.

Everyone looked at WoW and thought they wanted a piece of that pie, only to find out the reason WoW is making those numbers is because everyone is playing WoW. At best your MMO is going to make a fraction of the money WoW made, and the extra competition from everyone else is going to siphon money from everywhere. It's even worse when it's F2P because only a tiny fraction of your customer base is going to give you any money at all.

So this shouldn't be a reason for the future being F2P. But as all the above mentioned failed WoW clones showed, executives are stupid.

The future is all F2P all the time.

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As an aside, it's interesting the The Old Republic is making money. After a couple of years (if they can retain their base) it's going to start turning into a cash-bank for EA

 

[milijanko]

I'm curious about dota 2, but what is Crossfire? Never even heard of the game!
...

Basically a poor Counter-Strike rip-off with Pay2Win elements.

I boggles my mind when some of the people I knew spent more money buying guns, characters, kevlar,... on this crap game while they could simply buy a copy of CS for 10$.

 

[mindfaQ]

Does not seem like reliable data. Dota 2 has 10 times the users that TF2 has, I don't think it would end up in front of Dota 2, hence no use even discussing the numbers.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Holly shit, I knew they were doing well but I had no idea MOBA games are starting to catch up to the likes of CoD, no wonder everyone and their grandma has their own MOBA in the works.

 

[maximalist566]

It looks like random Korean numbers to me. Nothing more.

 

[Fat Hippo]

Holly shit, I knew they were doing well but I had no idea MOBA games are starting to catch up to the likes of CoD, no wonder everyone and their grandma has their own MOBA in the works.

The worst part is, so many are such utter League of Legends clones, it boggles the mind. Everyone, let's ride the bandwagon!

 

[Use_Imagination_here]

I'm curious about dota 2, but what is Crossfire? Never even heard of the game!

Also, why is the article named after League of Legends when they're on second place?

Because nobody here knows what the fuck Crossfire is.

Case in point.

OT: It's disheartening that the number 1 title is apparently a shitty fee to play ripoff, but at least most of the items on this list are good games that have optional things you can buy mainly for variety.

I wonder how big the money pool at valve has to be. I mean they got steam plus these games plus Dota 2 producing revenue.

I also wonder how Riot is generating 624 million per year in revenue but apparently can't afford to fix the fucking EU west servers.

 

[Use_Imagination_here]

Holly shit, I knew they were doing well but I had no idea MOBA games are starting to catch up to the likes of CoD, no wonder everyone and their grandma has their own MOBA in the works.

The worst part is, so many are such utter League of Legends clones, it boggles the mind. Everyone, let's ride the bandwagon!

They're technically DOTA ripoffs, but they're trying to copy Leagues success I guess.

 

[mindfaQ]

They're technically DOTA ripoffs, but they're trying to copy Leagues success I guess.

In terms of gameplay they copy from LoL, not DotA. Probably the only game that attempts to be similar to DotA is HoN (it started off as 1:1 copy anyway).

 

[The Wykydtron]

I'm curious about dota 2, but what is Crossfire? Never even heard of the game!

Also, why is the article named after League of Legends when they're on second place?

Because nobody here knows what the fuck Crossfire is.

Case in point.

OT: It's disheartening that the number 1 title is apparently a shitty fee to play ripoff, but at least most of the items on this list are good games that have optional things you can buy mainly for variety.

I wonder how big the money pool at valve has to be. I mean they got steam plus these games plus Dota 2 producing revenue.

I also wonder how Riot is generating 624 million per year in revenue but apparently can't afford to fix the fucking EU west servers.

Hey they said they were on it. Some kind of professional strike team where if you start lagging some ninjas with ethernet cables burst through your window to fix it or something like that. EU West down again? Better give NA RP.

I'm playing a bit of DOTA until Riot does what Riot does best and unnerfs all the people they nerfed at the start of a new season so I don't have to play through the rocky spot between major patches. At least they nerfed the right people this time but whoever had the bright idea to buff Riven's late game is a fucking idiot. And why would you nerf Rengo? Sure bug fix his triple Q but come on, he's a risky snowbally pick to start with don't make it worse.

OT: Yay money I suppose, i'm not at all surprised. I guess DOTA 2 ain't on the list because you can get all your stuff through random drops if you wish upon a star hard enough. I hate how they went full hats mode in DOTA as well. I like how Riot actually thinks up skins and follows through with a consistent theme instead of occasionally chucking a new looking bow in your direction along with 15 chests i'm never going to open.

Don't get me wrong, I like my Drow bow but c'mon Death Shadow Bow or Pulsefire Drow?

 

[SecondPrize]

How the hell did DOTA2 not make the top ten?

I'd say its some combination of fewer design elements pushing players to pay money than the others and fewer players.

 

[Use_Imagination_here]

Hey they said they were on it. Some kind of professional strike team where if you start lagging some ninjas with ethernet cables burst through your window to fix it or something like that. EU West down again? Better give NA RP.

I'm playing a bit of DOTA until Riot does what Riot does best and unnerfs all the people they nerfed at the start of a new season so I don't have to play through the rocky spot between major patches. At least they nerfed the right people this time but whoever had the bright idea to buff Riven's late game is a fucking idiot. And why would you nerf Rengo? Sure bug fix his triple Q but come on, he's a risky snowbally pick to start with don't make it worse.

OT: Yay money I suppose, i'm not at all surprised. I guess DOTA 2 ain't on the list because you can get all your stuff through random drops if you wish upon a star hard enough. I hate how they went full hats mode in DOTA as well. I like how Riot actually thinks up skins and follows through with a consistent theme instead of occasionally chucking a new looking bow in your direction along with 15 chests i'm never going to open.

Don't get me wrong, I like my Drow bow but c'mon Death Shadow Bow or Pulsefire Drow?

Hey they said they were on it. Some kind of professional strike team where if you start lagging some ninjas with ethernet cables burst through your window to fix it or something like that.

That would be amazing. Riot should be funding this.

And why would you nerf Rengo?

My grandparents had a dog named Rengo.

At least they nerfed the right people this time but whoever had the bright idea to buff Riven's late game is a fucking idiot.

Has there been a point in league when this shit HASN'T been going on? I don't think so.

This is why the BAN button exists. They buff someone, you ban them, they nerf someone, you ban the champs who now don't have counters.

Well unless you're playing normals in which case you don't deserve balanced gameplay.

I mean you try maintaining balance when the moneymaking quota means you have to make new champs 4 times a year.

In any case they removed the one true build, moneymaking gangplank so I refuse to play.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-SfsRFf7Vw