That’s a Lot of Loot Boxes
It is no secret that in-game microtransactions are a very profitable business practice. And this just goes to show how much money can be made. Blizzard’s multiplayer hero game Overwatch has just made one billion dollars off of in-game purchases.
According to SuperData Research, an organization who provides market intelligence for the video game industry is the one who broke the news. Going off of their numbers, Overwatch is the 64th game on either console, PC, or mobile to reach the billion-dollar club. The third anniversary of Overwatch’s release was only back in May. Meaning it only took three years to generate that amount of money.
This is great news for Activision Blizzard who has been struggling a bit as of late. Overwatch generating this much revenue has put it alongside some elite company. Activision Blizzard also has a handful of other IP’s that made it to one billion before Overwatch. World of Warcraft, Call of Duty, Destiny, Candy Crush, and Hearthstone have surpassed this milestone as well.
The amount of money that is generated through loot boxes is only expected to climb as new heroes are released along with special events such as Halloween and Christmas. As a matter of fact, Sigma, Overwatch’s newest hero was announced a few days ago.
The practice of loot boxes are very controversial. They have been compared to gambling by many people. This is a cause for concern because children have such easy access to them. The harsher critics have claimed that big gaming companies are purposefully targeting children in order to gouge them for money. And as the numbers show, this is a very profitable feature in games. Certain countries and states are taking a further look at loot boxes. To see if they are a form of gambling.