Fortnite: Battle Royale, the virally popular video game, has generated more than 1 billion dollars in revenue through in-game purchases alone, estimates gaming intelligence company SuperData.
The in-game purchases offer no competitive advantages to buyers, the SuperData report notes. Players can spend money to earn V-bucks within the game, which can be spent on outfits, or “skins,” accessories, and dance movies for their avatars. Players can also purchase the V-bucks directly, at a rate of 1,000 V-bucks for $9.99.
Because of Fortnite’s success, SuperData estimates that games featuring a battle royale mode will earn 12% of all gaming revenue in 2018. Battle royale is a popular gaming mode in which “a maximum of 100 players join a match (either alone or in a group of up to four) and fight to the death until the last person or squad is left standing.” It was pioneered by games like DayZ, H1Z1 and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds. The report said that Fortnite popularized the genre.
Call of Duty: Black Ops’ next installment will deliver players their first taste of battle royale from the franchise in October.
Fortnite exploded largely thanks to it’s accessibility for free on all gaming platforms and the exposure to audiences by popular Twitch streamers. The free-to-play game is less than a year old; it was released in September 2017.
Fortnite: Battle Royale was released as a mode of the original Fortnite game, a zombie survival game costing $60. It is currently the most-streamed and most-watched game on Twitch.