REPORT: Hearthstone's amazing comeback; PUBG overtakes World of Warcraft ~ esports betting buddy

August digital market up 11% thanks to F2P MMO

Global digital games market grows impressively in August thanks to free-to-play MMO, console, and mobile.
Football season heats up: Madden NFL 18 beats predecessor out of the gate.
PLAYERUNKNOWN’s Battlegrounds continues to dominate premium PC game sales, despite still being in Steam Early Access. PUBG is the number 1 premium PC game for the 3rd month in a row and has overtaken World of Warcraft in the total PC games rankings.
Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft reaches all-time high revenues due to their well-received and unique expansion, titled Knights of the Frozen Throne.

The worldwide digital video games market grew 11% year-over-year in August to $7.9B. The premium PC segment shrank 10% year-over-year, despite PUBG’s breakout success, due to tough comparisons against No Man’s Sky release and Overwatch’s first event and new map last year. Social and pay-to-play MMO segments continue to decline at a rate of 4% and 25% respectively. Console and mobile grew 11% and 13%, respectively. The free-to-play MMO market was the big winner this month, growing 28% year-over-year, as more publishers and developers adopt this business model. Read more...

See the full analysis here

Free-to-Play drives U.S. digital growth. In the U.S., digital games revenue grew year-over-year. This growth was underpinned by a rise in free-to-play digital revenue. This more than offsets the decline in pay-to-play, which was down on a difficult comparison against World of Warcraft: Legion last year.

PLAYERUNKNOWN's Battlegrounds sales accelerate in August. PUBG had another successful month, bringing total life-to-date sales close to 9 million units through August.

Hearthstone hits all-time revenue peak with "Knights of the Frozen Throne" expansion. Blizzard’s CCG reached a new high this month. This marks a 15% increase over their previous peak.

Overwatch PC monthly active users reach new highs due to successive updates. On the back of a string of updates that introduced a new character, two new game modes, and the return of the “Summer Games” event, Overwatch recorded its highest MAU yet.

Madden NFL 18 sells over 220,000 digital units at launch. Sales were up compared to last year's launch month units for Madden NFL 17. We also estimate modest additional content growth on the back of new in-game DLC packs available this year.