DFC analysts — about the current state of the battle royale market and future trends.
The revenues of the “royal battles” are growing rapidly. According to DFC Intelligence, this year their revenue could reach $5 billion. This figure is 32% higher than last year.
Fornite remains the leader in the genre in terms of revenue. It accounts for a third of the earnings of battle royals. After her come PUBG, Garena Free Fire, Knives Out and Apex Legends. This top five most earning “royal battles” generates 90% of the revenue of the entire genre.
FortnitePUBG vs.
Fortnite
According to analysts, PUBG has chosen a new growth strategy and is preparing to overtake Fortnite. Do not forget that it was the first one that made the genre popular. And although Fortnite eventually surpassed it in revenue, PUBG is preparing to regain its leadership.
PUBG has focused on simplified user interaction. Its PC version has become less demanding of resources, and the mobile version is actively developing. It was directed to this path by Asian and emerging markets. This is a huge industry where users are not as interested in classic Western franchises as console games.
Note that analysts call Garena Free Fire and Knives Out the absolute leaders of the genre in Asia. This is largely due to the huge base of mobile players. PUBG, or rather, its local version — Game for Peace or Peacekeeper, recently launched in China, is not mentioned by DFC. Although since May, her income has exceeded $ 600 million.
PUBGFuture trends
Battle royale as a separate mode is increasingly embedded in various titles. Or in the big popular franchises there are games in the genre of “battle royale”. This may become a strong trend by 2020, writes GameDaily.biz .
According to analysts, this trend may be beneficial for giants like Rockstar and Mojang AB. It’s all about the size of the user base. If it is measured not in tens of millions, but in hundreds of millions of players, then the company has a chance to succeed in the battle royale market. The “Battle Royale” within GTA or Minecraft could become very profitable.
Activision Blizzard, oddly enough, did not have enough users. The Call of Duty audience in DFC is called “relatively small”. And that’s why the Blackout mode, which the publisher added to Call of Duty: Black Ops IIII, turned out to be not so popular.
Blackout Mode in Call of Duty: Black Ops IIII
In addition, Call of Duty itself is sold for a full price tag (at least $60).
Fans of only battle royales, not franchises, have no reason to go to this game. So they choose shareware PUBG or Fortnite.
But match-3 from King (Candy Crush and so on) could be a good base for the battle royale mode. There is nothing impossible in this, analysts say. Hundreds of millions of people spend their time in Candy Crush games. And the casual genre combined with the “battle royale” is not so surprising after Tetris 99.
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