Apex Legends had the biggest launch month of any free-to-play game ever, according to a new report. Digital market analyst SuperData has revealed in its February report that Apex Legends brought in $92 million through in-game purchases during February, the game’s launch month. Most of that was generated on PS4, and Xbox One, making it the fourth biggest revenue generator on consoles during February. On PC, the Respawn shooter landed at number six, which is respectable if not earth-shattering. SuperData reckons this was the best out-of-the-gate performance for a free-to-play game ever. Despite this, Fortnite Battle Royale beat it on both PC, and consoles, coming in at number five, and number two respectively. Anthem, which topped retail charts in the US in February, was also another hot release that month. The game’s digital download ratio was “above average”, bringing in $3.5 million through in-game purchases across all platforms. Overall, February saw growth in … [Read more...] about Apex Legends estimated to have had the biggest launch month of any free-to-play game
9 month growth chart
Nvidia’s RTX 2080 fails to make a dent on Steam’s September hardware charts
Valve released a fresh batch of Steam hardware stats last night, detailing the most popular components used by participating survey filler-inners. Surprise, surprise, Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 2080 and RTX 2080Ti are nowhere to be seen on its graphics card list. Instead, PC peeps seem to be doubling down on cards at the other end of the price spectrum, with the GTX 1060, GTX 1050Ti and GTX 1050 claiming the top three positions for a combined usage share of 29.12%. For the nth month in a row, the GTX 1060 (our best graphics card recommendation for 1080p and 1440p gaming alike) once again claims the lion’s share of that figure, sitting inside 14.29% of Steam users’ PCs. That’s an increase of 0.53% month-on-month, which is the second largest jump in ownership for the month of September. The biggest usage increase went to the GTX 1050Ti which rose a whopping 0.96% since August’s hardware survey to claim a total share of 9.7%. The regular GTX 1050, meanwhile, rose … [Read more...] about Nvidia’s RTX 2080 fails to make a dent on Steam’s September hardware charts
Square Enix’s 15th Anniversary – The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
Back in good ol’ April of 2003, a relationship developed between two companies: Square and Enix. Though rivals, they noticed something appealing in one another. Enix strictly published video games while Square focused on developing them with a team of programmers, graphic designers, and professional story writers. Since 2000, the idea of a merger had been discussed, but it took some time for the companies to commit to each other (for good reason, of course.) Sure, there were some bumps in the road and red flags, but the partnership of a developer and a publisher ought to be a clever move financially, right? It’s been a whopping fifteen years since the two tied the knot. Let’s take a stroll down memory lane and a gander at what the united company has endured since. Both Enix and Square were founded in Japan around the same time – Enix in 1975 and Square later in 1983. Enix was larger than Square and ensured buckets of money, but lacked success in … [Read more...] about Square Enix’s 15th Anniversary – The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
Nearly a third of PC gamers are playing a battle royale game
Subscribe to PCGamesN on YouTube Update, March 27: A new report details just how popular the battle royale genre is these days. While the battle royale landgrab may be something of a running joke, there’s a reason why it’s happening. The success of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds wasn’t a fluke if the similarly meteoric rise of Fortnite is any indication, and according to a new report nearly a third of PC gamers are playing some kind of battle royale. Get a fabled victory royale with our Fortnite Battle Royale guide. That report comes from analysts Newzoo, who say that 30.1% of PC players spent time in February enjoying the genre. Fortnite has a 16.3% share of all PC players according to the data, while PUBG has 14.6%. Other games including DayZ, H1Z1, and Ark: Survival of the Fittest are all much lower on the list, with far less than 5% each. Though it seems a chunk of players are enjoying multiple battle royales, since those numbers add up to more … [Read more...] about Nearly a third of PC gamers are playing a battle royale game
Fortnite’s biggest YouTubers are gaining one million subscribers a month
Just how big is Fortnite: Battle Royale on YouTube? Very. A new report from Let’s Play Index, a site that maintains statistics for different YouTube gaming topics and trends by pulling data from the YouTube API to update statistics and view counts, suggests Fortnite is basically the only game being played on YouTube these days. Approximately 1,700 Fortnite vides were uploaded to YouTube in the past week, Let’s Play Index reports, amassing roughly 226,376,777 million views in the process. Minecraft, the second most popular game on YouTube, generated 74,398,127 million views from 1,050 videos. Fortnite’s dominance on platforms like YouTube and Twitch isn’t surprising. The game has infiltrated just about every corner of YouTube, with vloggers and non-gaming creators finding a way to work Fortnite into their videos. As popular YouTuber Keemstar said on Twitter a couple of weeks ago, “Everyone is playing Fortnite; everyone. All other games are dead.” … [Read more...] about Fortnite’s biggest YouTubers are gaining one million subscribers a month