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Fortnite Maintains Its Lead Over Other Online Games — But Sales Are Waning

The hit video game leads in spend compared to challengers PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, Apex Legends, and Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, but has seen sales drop 52% since Q2 2018.

Key Takeaways

• PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) sales dipped 2% since Q2 2018

• Free-to-play Apex Legends and Fortnite see the vast majority of spend on in-game currencies

• Apex Legends leads other games in loyalty of players (62%) who repeated in-game purchases month over month

In July 2019, 16-year-old Kyle “Bugha” Giersdorf won $3 million at the Fortnite World Cup, and many people for the first time realized exactly how big esports had become. Video games are bigger than ever before, and unbeknownst to many, an entire industry has emerged. Now, esports fans, on top of playing at home, fill entire stadiums to watch their favorite professional players duke it out on the big screen. By 2021, esports are expected to have 307 million occasional viewers and 250 million enthusiasts — nearly double 2016’s 160 million occasional viewers and 121 million enthusiasts. Last summer, Edison Trends reported that Fortnite’s consumer spend increased by an average of 110% per month in the first half of 2018, and our latest analysis of more than 375,000 transactions shows how growth in the competitive gaming landscape has evolved since.

How have consumer spending trends changed in online games over the last two years?

Figure 1: Chart shows estimated spending on online games for Fortnite, Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, Apex Legends, and PUBG from August 1, 2017 to July 31, 2019, according to Edison Trends. Data was scaled so that the highest monthly spend was set to 100. This analysis is based on over 375,000 transactions.

Spending on online games over the last two years has shown peaks and valleys for even the most popular games. Spending on Fortnite, for example, had risen an average of 110% per month from November 2017 through May 2018, but has been in general decline ever since. However, they had their best month in December 2018, with 20% more revenue during the holiday season than their previous high in July 2018.

The peak of spending on PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) occurred in December 2017, also the holiday season, about nine months after their launch. Spending has continued to decline, but since early 2018 has remained more stable than that of Fortnite. Spending on Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 nearly equaled that of Fortnite after its release in October 2018 (there had been some build-up prior to that with pre-orders). In July 2019, players spent about twice as much on Black Ops 4 as on PUBG. As for Apex Legends, the game quickly moved past both Black Ops 4 and PUBG in spend after its release, and currently sits in a distant 2nd place after Fortnite.

Looking at Fortnite and PUBG, the two games that were around at the beginning of Q2 2018, we see a large difference in how they've weathered the last year. While Fortnite shot up into the cultural zeitgeist and saw sales increase alongside its popularity, the game has gradually seen spend drop 52% between Q2 2018 to Q2 2019. PUBG, while perhaps not reaching the same height of brand prominence that Fortnite received, has remained steadier in sales with a drop of only 2% between Q2 2018 to Q2 2019.

How do players spend their money in free online games?

Figure 2a: Chart shows estimated spending within Fortnite from August 1, 2018 to July 31, 2019, according to Edison Trends.


Figure 2b: Chart shows estimated spending within Apex Legends from August 1, 2018 to July 31, 2019, according to Edison Trends.


While all our profiled games have in game purchases, some are free-to-play and others must be bought first. This can lead to a difference in the breakdown on money spent on the game. When looking at free-to-play like Fortnite and Apex Legends, the vast majority of spend on these games is on the in-game currencies of V-Bucks (83%) and Apex Coins (96%). In Fortnite, a proportion of spending also goes toward Packs (13%) and Bundles (3%). In Apex Legends however, only 4% of spending goes toward Packs, and <0.1% goes to Other.

How do people spend their money in paid online games?

Figure 3a: Chart shows estimated spending within PUBG, including the purchase of the game itself, from August 1, 2018 to July 31, 2019, according to Edison Trends.


Figure 3b: Chart shows estimated spending within Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, including the purchase of the game itself, from August 1, 2018 to July 31, 2019, according to Edison Trends.


As for the purchased games studied, the majority of customer spending goes toward purchasing the games themselves with PUBG at 94% and CoD at 69%. As for in-game currency, PUBG sees 4% of purchases on G-Coins, and CoD sees 19% of purchases on Points. Outside of in-game currencies, PUBG sees 3% of spending on Packs, and CoD sees 8% on Add-on Content and 4% on Black Ops Passes.

Which online game leads in loyalty of players that make repeat in-game purchases?

Figure 4: Chart shows the percentage of players from each game who made purchases in both June 2019 and July 2019, according to Edison Trends.


To measure the loyalty of players across online games, Edison Trends looked at how often players made repeat in-game transactions. Out of Apex Legends players who made a purchase in June 2019, 62% went on to make another in July. Apex Legends was the most recently released of all the games, and has been riding a plateau since their early peak. Fortnite, which has been around for over two years, showed its longevity in the industry by coming in next with 49% of players making repeat purchases month over month. Both Black Ops 4 and PUBG, which rely on purchases of the game itself and see a smaller amount of sales from in-game purchases, still saw 40% and 38% respectively of players making repeat purchases.

As the market evolves, we will continue to stay on top of the latest trends. To learn more about how Edison Trends can help your business, contact us at bizdev@edison.tech. For more up-to-date insights in the e-commerce space, be sure to subscribe to our newsletter, and follow us on Twitter at @EdisonTrends.

*The data shown is based on a sample of anonymized and aggregated e-receipts from millions of consumers in the United States.

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