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Superdata: Fortnite has more monthly active users than GTA Online

Battle Royale game earned more additional content revenue than any other console title in February - except Call of Duty

SuperData has released its February report on the world of digital game, charting the continuing success of Epic Games' Fortnite: Battle Royale.

The free-to-play hit was among the month's highest-grossing titles on both PC and console, with SuperData reporting that it now has more monthly active users than Grand Theft Auto V.

While exact figures for both games aren't available, we know that the ongoing popularity of GTA Online has been a key driver for Take-Two's recent financials. Back in November, Rockstar's title posted another record quarter and was the biggest generator of "recurrent consumer spending" for its publisher.

Fortnite may have the advantage of being free-to-play, but it's still an impressive milestone to achieve: surpassing the ongoing Rockstar phenomenon.

SuperData also reports that additional content revenues generated by Fortnite outperformed that of every other console title - with the exception of Call of Duty: World War II.

In fact, Fortnite's revenues helped grow spending on free-to-play console games by 359 per cent when compared to Feburary 2017. It will be interesting to see the impact of the mobile version, which released last month. Its success would put Epic's title among the highest-grossing games in all three categories: PC, console and mobile.

Meanwhile, Fortnite's biggest rival - a pioneer of the current Battle Royale boom - PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds sold 2.5 million units in February. This meant a continued decrease in PC digital sales, but this was offset by the steady momentum of the Xbox one version.

Overall, the global market for digital video games grew by six per cent year-on-year to $9.1 billion. Console enjoyed the biggest growth at 34 per cent, followed closely by the premium PC segment at 33 per cent - both indicating the growing preference for consumers to buy high-end titles digitally rather than traditional retail.

Mobile revenues grew by four percent, while other sectors saw slight declines: one per cent for social PC games, eight per cent for PC pay-to-play and four per cent for PC free-to-play.

Here are the Top 10 highest-grossing titles in the world for February:

PC

  1. League of Legends
  2. Dungeon Fighter Online
  3. Fantasy Westward Journey Online II
  4. Crossfire
  5. PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds
  6. Fortnite: Battle Royale
  7. World of Warcraft
  8. World of Tanks
  9. Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
  10. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

Console

  1. Call of Duty: WWII
  2. FIFA 18
  3. Fortnite: Battle Royale
  4. Monster Hunter: World
  5. Grand Theft Auto V
  6. Madden NFL 18
  7. Destiny 2
  8. NBA 2K18
  9. EA Sports UFC 3
  10. Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Siege

Mobile

  1. Honour of Kings
  2. QQ Speed
  3. Fantasy Westward Journey
  4. Candy Crush Saga
  5. Clash Royale
  6. Monster Strike
  7. Fate/Grand Order
  8. Lineage M
  9. Pokemon Go
  10. Clash of Clans

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James Batchelor avatar
James Batchelor: James is Editor-in-Chief at GamesIndustry.biz, and has been a B2B journalist since 2006. He is author of The Best Non-Violent Video Games
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