A quarter of the money PlayStation users spend in Sony’s PlayStation Store goes to free-to-play games like Fortnite, Apex Legends and Warzone. This is evident from a presentation from Sony. Four years ago, it was just 5 percent.
Sony sells full digital games, DLC and subscriptions through its PlayStation Store. Of all download store spend, 25 percent went to in-game purchases from free-to-play games during the financial year. In fiscal year 2016 this was only 5 percent.
The rise of free games like Fortnite, Apex Legends and Call of Duty: Warzone has fueled this shift. Such games are played by tens of millions of players. The games are free, but the makers earn a lot of money by selling skins and battle passes. Sony also lists Genshin Impact and Rocket League as free-to-play titles that players spend a lot on.
Sony also benefits from the high income from those free games, as the platform holder receives a 30 percent commission on all spending made in the PlayStation Store. The amount that players spend on free-to-play games in Sony’s download store is not known, but it is believed to be billions annually. The total revenue that only Epic Games has achieved with Fortnite in recent years is estimated to be more than $ 14 billion.
The details are in Sony’s presentation to investors. It also emerged that there will be a PC version of Uncharted 4 and that Sony plans to sell the PlayStation 5 directly to consumers in the Benelux, without the intervention of shops.