Rewind a few years and Blizzard's World of Warcraft stood tall as the most profitable massively multiplayer online game in existence. Fast forward today and the same game, the most successful MMO in history, ranks in as the fourth most profitable MMO title. What happened?
Free-to-play happened. New research from Superdata shows that free-to-play MMOs, multiplayer online battle arena games (MOBAs) and others have come to dominate a market that, at one time, believed a monthly subscription fee was the only way to be successful.
Leading the charge is free-to-play MOBA League of Legends from developer Riot Games. The game is estimated to have brought in nearly a billion dollars in revenue and sits at the top of the MMO charts. League of Legend's primary MOBA competition, Dota 2, ranks in as the ninth most profitable MMO game, despite being a relative newcomer.
Free-to-play works because it eliminates any barrier for entry, and allows developers to penetrate markets that otherwise might be unable to play traditional console video games. League of Legends has seen massive success in Asia as well as in countries like Brazil and Russia because of this. In these free-to-play titles, a very small minority of players spend money on cosmetic items and skins for no other reason than to look cool. By having millions upon millions of players, even a small percentage of players paying money regularly can add up big time. The MOBA genre as a whole now makes up 24 percent of the MMO market share, in comparison to just 16 percent last year.
While World of Warcraft continues to do well with its monthly subscription model, Blizzard has incorporated microtransactions more commonly seen in free-to-play games to World of Warcraft in order to increase revenue. The company is very aware of how lucrative the free-to-play business model can be: Blizzard canceled their long in development next-gen MMO Titan in favor of supporting smaller, free-to-play projects like the MOBA Heroes of the Storm and digital card game Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft. It's a bet that is likely to pay off. Hearthstone broke into the top 10 MMO games, according to Superdata.
But that doesn't mean free-to-play is the future of gaming. Superdata is sure to point out that triple AAA games released physically or digitally cause significant decreases in free-to-play spending, proving that gamers rotate gaming platforms and often shift their focus from free-to-play titles to premium experiences. Free-to-play has proven it can work, but as more and more developers flock to mimic the success of games like League of Legends the market is sure to become very crowded very quickly.
