In a long report on the decline of massive multiplayer online games and the changes to business models in pay-to-play games, SuperData has revealed that five MMOs currently make $100 million annually.
Covering a lot of topics on the growth of some new MMOs and changes in the mobile market, the report claims while overall revenue is starting to decay on traditional MMOs, revenue per user is growing, especially on older titles.
World of Warcraft continues to rule the MMO market, with a 36 percent market share and four times the revenue of the second MMO at $1 billion. It is clear that fans of the Blizzard game continue to fund money to the giant MMO experience.
That being said, WoW subscribers continue to shrink, but this is offset by the new DLC available for the MMO, spiking the amount of new users and re-users who come back to play the DLC and level their account to max.
Lineage sits at second place, thanks to its continued popularity in Korea. NCSoft have several games in the top ten, including Aion, Blade and Soul and Lineage II. Lineage is the oldest game on the list, launched on September 1998.
Atari’s TERA: Online sits at third place, it is one of the earliest MMOs to come to the top 10 chart and continues to have success in various countries in Asia. Star Wars: The Old Republic sits at fourth, surprising considering the change to free-to-play.
Lord of the Rings Online is the last MMO to have over $100 million annual revenue, behind it sits EVE Online, known as one of the most tactical MMOs on the market, with annual revenue at $96 million.
New games like Elder Scrolls Online and WildStar did not make the list, though there is popularity on both of the new MMOs. New “shared world” games like Destiny and The Division might bring new life to the MMO genre.
