SuperData: $10.5 billion was spent on digital versions of games in April

The month turned out to be hot. Due to the fact that everyone is sitting at home, the digital earnings of League of Legends, Grand Theft Auto V and Fortnite were peak in April.

It last month:

• League of Legends has reached its peak monthly earnings since February 2017;
• Grand Theft Auto V has gained a record amount from the IAP in April for the entire history;
• Fortnite’s monthly earnings have peaked since May 2019 (here, however, it’s not just about global quarantine, Travis Scott also helped).

If we turn to specific figures and percentages, then, according to SuperData, the revenue of the digital games market grew by 17% in annual terms, reaching $10.5 billion (a year earlier it was about $ 8.9 billion).

Growth was also observed in monthly terms. The April global digital retail revenue was 5% more than the March one.

If we talk about annual growth by segment, then:

• The mobile games market grew by 14 in April 2020%;
• the market for digital versions of PC games has grown by 12%;
• the market for digital versions of games for consoles has grown by a significant 42%.

As expected, analysts explain such dynamics in the market by the universally introduced self-isolation regime. As for the surge in the console segment, the main reason is the good endurance of March games and a strong line of April releases:

• Animal Crossing: New Horizons sold more copies in April than any other console game — 3.6 million in numbers. However, relative to March, the game still had a 27% drop in sales.
• Final Fantasy VII Remake showed the sale of 2.2 million digital copies. One of the drivers of digital sales was the problem with the implementation of physical copies of the game in a pandemic. As a result: digital sales of Final Fantasy VII Remake slightly outstripped the initial digital sales of Marvel’s Spider-Man, which were record-breaking for PlayStation 4 exclusives.
• Resident Evil 3 Remake started slightly worse than the more warmly received by critics last year Resident Evil 2 Remake. The novelty has 1.3 million digital copies sold compared to 1.4 million that the franchise collected last year.
• The remaster of the single-player version of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 demonstrated the demand of the franchise audience for single-player campaigns. Sales of the title amounted to 3.4 million.

Also on the topic:

• SuperData: $10 billion was spent on digital versions of games in MarchSuperData: $9.2 billion was spent on digital versions of games in February
• SuperData: In January, players spent $9.4 billion on digital versions of games
• Is there any news?