Epic Games' battle royale video game Fortnite has retained the title of the top-grossing online game for 2019. The game managed to rake in the most amounts of digital sales for 2019 than any other title. This continued the streak it started in 2018 where it set a new record for having the most amount of money earned in a year.
Last year, Fortnite raked in over $1.8 billion in total digital sales. While the amount did allow it to retain its title, it was 25 percent lower than the game's record-breaking sales in 2018. The relatively smaller video game title competed against other games developed by billion-dollar companies.
For 2019, Fortnite managed to beat other well known paid online content such as Candy Crush, Dungeon Fighter Online, and Pokemon Go. In terms of digital sales, the game already beat out established franchises such as FIFA 2019 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. Although, the two aforementioned titles did manage to come close to Fortnite's numbers in terms of total sales when considering actual physical sales numbers.
Despite having a lower number of the player base, Fortnite still managed to beat PC behemoths last year. The game beat the current largest PC game in the world, League of Legends, which only managed to bring in $1.5 billion in 2019.
According to Nielsen's video game arm SuperData, last year's gaming industry raked in a total of $120 billion in earnings. This was a 4 percent increase from the earnings recorded in the previous year.
The same report stated that Fortnite's success might be attributed to the developer's constant updates and close-ties with its gaming community. Epic Games apparently made an effort of keeping the title fresh by keeping strong social interactions and continually adding seasonal changes and challenges.
Epic Games also employed various strategies to convert more players into spenders. This included constant updates to its battle pass subscription service and the addition of new and fresh in-game cosmetics, which are seen by players as a status symbol for their online characters.
The developer had also invested in a number of different in-game events, where it collaborated with popular franchise owners such as Disney. In December last year, the company launched its Star Wars event, where it features popular iconographies and characters from the franchise. In October, the game's developers hosted a massive event that commemorated the end of its tenth season. According to Epic Games, over 7 million people viewed the event across Twitch, YouTube, and Twitter.
