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The release of Sigma isn’t the only thing that Blizzard is celebrating about. Overwatch passed the $1 billion mark from in-game spending in June, according to Nielsen’s SuperData report on the digital games market.
This is purely based on in-game purchases, including those sweet Summer Games loot boxes and OWL tokens for Overwatch League skins. Overwatch was already a billion-dollar franchise as of May 2017, just slightly under a year after its release.
Despite the general distaste for in-app purchases, Overwatch became “the 64th game on either console, PC or mobile to generate over $1 billion from in-game content alone,” according to the SuperData report.
Overwatch’s microtransactions are less predatory than most, with a heavy focus on cosmetic customization, such as skins and victory poses, rather than actual in-game advantages, like unlocking heroes or additional stats.
Related: Legislators are targeting loot boxes, here’s why
Overwatch has also become the sixth Activision Blizzard IP to hit the billion-dollar mark, following huge franchises like World of Warcraft, Call of Duty, and Hearthstone.
With Sigma’s dawning on the horizon, Summer Games 2019 kicking off, and radical changes coming to OWL stage four, Overwatch doesn’t seem quite ready to rest on its laurels. Who knows? It might even overtake Candy Crush in revenue one day.
