2018 Was The Biggest Year For Games And Interactive Entertainment Says SuperData

2018 was a big year for the video games industry. In fact, video game data research site SuperData called 2018 “the biggest year for digital games and interactive entertainment. Ever.” in their recently published year-in-review report.

According to SuperData, the gaming and interactive media industry grew by 13% last year. This is largely due to the rise of cross-platform gaming and the increasing popularity of gaming video content (GVC), esports, and virtual reality, which, says the research company “led to a dynamic market that shows no signs of slowing”.

While Fortnite taking the #1 spot shouldn't surprise anyone, Dungeon Fighter Online, League of Legends, Pokemon GO, and Fate/Grand Order continued to dominate the list after placing in the top 10 last year as well.

Perhaps more interestingly, Playerunknown's Battlegrounds was the best selling buy to play game in all of 2018, out earning other blockbuster titles like Call of Duty: Black Ops 4.

Epic Games’ immensely-popular battle royale game Fortnite also had a huge hand in the growth of the gaming industry generating “the most annual revenue of any game in history” and popularizing GVCs including live game streams and YouTube videos to the public. Here are other key takeaways from the report:

“Free-to-play titles amassed 80% of digital games revenue in 2018 but premium games still performed well in Western markets. Asian mobile games helped the region earn 62% of global free-to-play revenue, while North America and Europe generated 80% of premium games revenue.

Red Dead Redemption 2 earned $516M in Q4, helping to grow premium games revenue 10% year-over-year. The title is expected to continue adding to the market in 2019 through further monetization of its multiplayer mode, Red Dead Online.

GVC earned $5.2B as viewership hit 850M unique viewers. Popular streamers like Ninja introduced GVC to new audiences as Fortnite impacted how games are watched as much as how they are played.

XR revenue rose from $4.4B to $6.6B as new headsets offset declining earnings from existing platforms. Oculus Go and other standalone devices appealed to everyday consumers even as shipments of PC and mobile headsets like the Oculus Rift and Samsung Gear VR contracted.”

If you’re looking for a copy of the statistical data, you can get a free PDF copy from the SuperData site. SuperData also posted a list of the Top Ten Most-Watched Games On Twitch and YouTube for December 2018. You can check out the list below.

#Fortnite is the most watched game on both #Twitch and #YouTube in December. https://t.co/2QsOhqENnX pic.twitter.com/YHUtq8Niji

— SuperData (@_SuperData) January 14, 2019