HEAT VISION
'Fortnite,' 'God of War' Boost Worldwide Gaming Revenue to $9B in April
Epic Games' Fortnite continues to rake in enormous profits. It once again broke the record for most additional content revenue in a single month by a console game, generating $296 million in April across console, PC and mobile platforms, according to a new sales report by SuperData Research.
The massive number, up from March's $223 million, along with God of War's record-breaking release on PlayStation 4, helped boost total console spending a staggering 44 percent from the previous month.
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God of War, a Sony-exclusive title, had the largest console-exclusive digital launch in history last month. The title sold an estimated 2.1 million digital units at launch on April 20, more than double that of the second-largest Sony-exclusive launch, 2016's Uncharted 4. God of War went on to sell more than 3 million copies in its first three days.
Overall, worldwide digital spending grew by 23 percent in April, with consumers spending more than $9 billion on digital games across console, PC and mobile, up from $7 billion in the same month last year. The biggest growth drivers came from console spend and mobile, via in-game purchases.
Meanwhile, Grand Theft Auto V, the highest-grossing game in history, saw online revenue dip 9 percent year-over-year. The Rockstar title was originally released on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 consoles in 2013, but found new life on the current generation of consoles and through continued online play and in-game purchases.
The game's profits have declined sequentially every month since the start of the year, likely in part due to the continued rise of Fortnite as well as a dearth of significant content updates from Rockstar as the studio gears up for the October release of Red Dead Redemption 2.
