Blizzard’s MOBA shooter Overwatch has joined an elite group of games after earning $1 billion from in-game spending alone, according to SuperData.
Overwatch is the 64th game across PC, console and mobile to achieve this milestone. It’s also the sixth Activision Blizzard’s title to reach $1 billion in in-game spending, the previous IPs being World of Warcraft, Call of Duty, Hearthstone, Destiny and Candy Crush.
This new achievement comes from in-game purchases such as loot boxes and OWL tokens for the Overwatch League. The game itself had already hit the $1 billion mark in May 2017, not a year after its release. It became the company’s eighth IP to become a $1 billion franchise, when taking into consideration game sales.
Content such as the Overwatch League has contributed to maintaining the popularity of the game, with exclusive skins on sale for the league available for purchase with exclusive tokens.
Blizzard hasn’t disclosed the number of players playing the game in 2019, however during the two-year anniversary event in May 2018 the player count reached 40 million.