Home Gaming F2P model continues to dominate, MOBAs grow

F2P model continues to dominate, MOBAs grow

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21

Evolution of a young plant

When I first started playing Dota 2, I swore I would never spend a cent, not one. Who on earth would be silly enough to spend money on a cosmetic? Not I! At least, that’s what my attitude USED to be. I’ve since seen it as a way to thank Valve for giving me hours upon hours of joy, and yes, even frustration. Think the free-to-play model is silly? SuperData have released stats which prove otherwise.

MMO-graph

Online multi-player games have been popular for a long time. But in only a few short years, the MMO market has changed dramatically in terms of revenue, player preferences and addressable audience. Overall, the total MMO category is on track to generate $11 billion in annual revenues by the end of this year, representing roughly 21% of the worldwide digital games market. By 2017, this number is forecast to grow to $13 billion. And so it can be no surprise that small and large publishers alike are trying to claim their share of this thriving market.

Don’t worry, my eyes also nearly fell out of my head. I always knew F2P made more money somehow, I just never knew to what extent. This year will see $11 billion generated, that’s crazy! Here’s a breakdown of the top 10 contributors.

STATS

  • MOBAs like LoL and DOTA 2 see huge jumps in rankings
  • First person shooters losing ground to eSports-heavy MOBAs
  • World of Warcraft holds its own as it adds 600,000 subscribers
  • Asia remains largest MMO market with $4.2B in revenues

Despite mature titles that have been around for years, the MMO market is still seeing seismic shifts. Driven by engagement from eSports, MOBAs like League of Legends and DOTA 2 have been climbing in the rankings, while former titans in the shooter genre decline. The free-to-play (F2P) revenue model continues to dominate over pay-to-play games, though stalwart success World of Warcraft surprises with healthy subscriber growth

MOBAs are still on the rise thanks to eSports. I’m really not surprised to see League of Legends all the way on top because it is ridiculously popular. Shooters are on the decline supposedly, which I can also kind of understand. Keep in mind that Valve are planning to host a large tournament akin to The International for Dota 2 next year though which may help it climb in popularity somewhat.

Do these numbers surprise you otherwise? I really never realised THAT many billions of dollars was being generated.

(Header Source)

Last Updated: October 24, 2014

21 Comments

  1. “hours upon hours”
    are you sure thats how you want to quantify that amount of time?

    Reply

    • Admiral Chief 0

      October 24, 2014 at 10:03

      Indeed, HE LIES

      Reply

    • hairyknees

      October 24, 2014 at 11:32

      Sssssh! 😛

      Reply

  2. Captain JJ in the shadow

    October 24, 2014 at 09:59

    I don’t mind F2P games. It’s nice and easy to check out, see if you like it and then decide from there if you’re going to spend money on it.

    Reply

    • Viking Of Divinity

      October 24, 2014 at 10:00

      except Neverwinter, #amiright?

      Reply

      • Captain JJ in the shadow

        October 24, 2014 at 10:01

        Oh man. I so badly wanted to like that game but I think the connection to the servers is by two cans and a string.

        Reply

  3. Admiral Chief 0

    October 24, 2014 at 10:03

    So that is how they farm the cabbages

    Reply

  4. Alien Emperor Trevor

    October 24, 2014 at 10:06

    If it wasn’t F2P I doubt I wouldn’t have tried Warframe. Now I love it to bits & I’ve happily coughed up a few $.

    Reply

    • Captain JJ in the shadow

      October 24, 2014 at 10:07

      That’s the appeal of F2P for me too. I get to try it out, see what it’s about.
      Warframe is actually on my list to get to next.

      Reply

      • Alien Emperor Trevor

        October 24, 2014 at 10:20

        Sweet, once you get into it it’s a lot of fun.

        Listening to Weanerdog the other day made me realise I’ve also guilty of racing ahead of new players during missions because I’m used to the game now. So for the last couple of days I’ve been joining one of the crappier early Earth missions to play to help out TEH N00BZ!

        Reply

        • Captain JJ in the shadow

          October 24, 2014 at 10:22

          I will call upon your expertise. Just need to power through Shadow Of Mordor and still need to finish The Force Unleashed (or Admiral might murder me)

          Reply

          • Alien Emperor Trevor

            October 24, 2014 at 10:23

            Why? It’s only Star Wars. 😀

          • Captain JJ in the shadow

            October 24, 2014 at 10:25

            I think that comment just caused widespread aneurysms.

          • Alien Emperor Trevor

            October 24, 2014 at 10:29

        • Weanerdog

          October 24, 2014 at 10:37

          Noobz need loving too.

          Reply

  5. Corrie

    October 24, 2014 at 10:25

    I finally tried a F2P earlier this month: APB Reloaded, looked cool, wasn’t, seriously thing was massive complicated and yeah smells of P2W bacon grease in the morning.

    Reply

  6. R1ker

    October 24, 2014 at 10:35

    A friend of mine is trying to get mo to get into Archeage. Runs on the crytek 3 engine and is F2P. The thing is I am not really into MMO’s but apparently the game gets good after you hit level 10. Trying to stick it out. Has anyone else been trying this?

    Reply

    • Weerwolf

      October 24, 2014 at 11:20

      I have tried it and it is quite good. But the whole labor points system annoys me. And apparently it’s useless to try and do farming, trading, etc with F2P. You also can’t own land if you don’t have a subscription. So I read the PVE element of the game isn’t great so your options end-game is building a house, farming, trading, etc (if you pay) or becoming a pirate and doing PVP (if you don’t pay). And personally I prefer PVE with a bit of PVP when I feel like it so decided not to continue wasting my time. But it is a good game and I recommend trying it.

      Reply

  7. UltimateNinjaPandaDudeGuy

    October 24, 2014 at 12:51

    I actually installed Planetside 2 last night. Going to try it out tonight.

    Reply

    • Galbedir

      October 24, 2014 at 15:57

      You won’t be disappointed…Been playing it on and off for awhile, decided I wanted to start playing an online FPS, after seeing BF4 at R800 for the set, and CoD going to cost me roughly the same with DLC. I decided to just throw alittle into Planetside 2…even without paying you can unlock gun mods and guns. Quite frankly, Feels like they took bf4 (but bigger), Halo and Borderlands and made a beautiful Batalolands baby.

      Reply

  8. Ryanza

    October 24, 2014 at 13:26

    All that graft shows is best internet to worse internet in the world.

    Don’t support DRM.

    Reply

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