Consumers spent 12 per cent more on digital games in 2020 than the previous year.
That's according to research firm SuperData, which reports that $139.9bn was spent digitally on the medium last year. This increase is no doubt due to – what else? – a certain global pandemic which had people around the world encouraged or forced to stay at home for large parts of 2020.
Of this huge $139.9bn, the bulk came from mobile, which clocked in $73.8bn, while PC followed with a $33.1bn slice of the pie. Console, meanwhile, came in at $19.7bn, with $6.7bn being spent on XR.
SuperData reports that free-to-play saw a nine per cent increase in revenue in 2020, with 78 per cent of total digital spending coming from this business model. Asian regions – unsurprisingly –accounted for 59 per cent of free-to-play spending. On PC, $22.7bn of digital revenue came from free-to-play titles, while $6.7bn came from premium titles. Pay-to-play – presumable subscription titles – raked in $3.7bn.
In the free-to-play rankings, Roblox reportedly brought in $2.29bn in 2020, while League of Legends raked in a cool $1.75bn in revenue. Meanwhile, on the premium side of things, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare was the highest-grossing title, bringing in $1.9bn. This is likely due to the free-to-play battle royale mode Warzone, which was rolled out in March. Between its launch on December 10th and the end of 2020, SuperData reckons that Cyberpunk 2077 brought in $609 million.
The company also reckons that digital games spending will clock in at $142.2bn in 2021, a two per cent increase.
