There’s good news and bad news for fans of massively multiplayer online games. In August, social MMOs were down 4 percent year-over-year and pay-to-play MMOs were down 25 percent, according to industry analyst SuperData Research. The digital games market overall grew 11 percent year-over-year to reach $7.9 billion.
Blizzard was a big winner, and it broke some of its own records thanks to its hit MMO shooter Overwatch and digital card game Hearthstone. According to SuperData, Overwatch on PC saw the highest monthly active users ever, likely due to its updates and content refreshes. Last month, Blizzard rolled out its new Deathmatch mode and held its second Summer Games event. The new character Doomfist also became available at the end of July.
SuperData previously predicted that Hearthstone would earn $1.4 billion this year, and it seems that the latest expansion, Knights of the Frozen Throne, is helping it along its way. When it launched in August, it generated a record-high amount of revenue, 15 percent more than it’s earned before. It’s previously earned up to $40 million per month.
Other success stories from last month include PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, which is still going strong. Despite still being in early access, it sold nearly 9 million copies in August, and by September 5, it’s already reached the 10 million milestone. Its success has already spawned imitators, such as Epic Games’s Fortnite: Battle Royale, but at the moment, it seems like its popularity is unstoppable. For three consecutive months, it’s been the top premium PC game, though it still didn’t reach No. 1 in the top-10 list of top-grossing titles.
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Electronic Arts’s Madden NFL 18 also topped the sales charts in August, selling 220,000 digital copies according to SuperData. It’s a higher number than Madden NFL 17 launch sales, and EA will undoubtedly continue to add more content later this year.
Overall, despite PUBG’s success and Overwatch PC’s record-breaking month, SuperData reports that PC game sales are down 10 percent year-over-year. In contrast, game sales on console are up 11 percent and up 13 percent on mobile. It’s a trend that may continue, as mobile game revenue has finally come up on top this year, surpassing both PC and console for the first time ever.
