Fortnite conquers 2019 with $1.8 billion earned

Free-to-play battle royale sensation Fortnite dominated yet another year of gaming, making more money that some publishers and developers make all year.

According to SuperData's new yearly report, Fortnite was the best-earning game of 2019 with over $1 billion in revenue generated from in-game microtransactions.

"Fortnite clinched the top spot for the second year in a row, generating $1.8 billion in 2019. The enduring popularity of Fortnite is partially attributable to crossover promotions with pop culture blockbusters like Avengers, Stranger Things and Star Wars," analyst firm SuperData said.

With these numbers we have to wonder just how much Epic Games made in 2019. Fortnite is the single largest contributor to Epic's swelling coffers and $1.8 billion is quite a haul.

Reports say Epic raked in a tremendous $3 billion in profit in 2018, making it one of the top forces in the dedicated games industry behind Take-Two Interactive, Electronic Arts, and Activision-Blizzard. The new Epic Games Store should also boost earnings up nicely thanks to lucrative marketing deals with top franchises like Borderlands 3.

Fortnite should continue to grow as it embraces more cross-franchise opportunities. The world's most popular game is basically a massive billboard to promote new movies and other media, and we'll continue to see Epic use Fortnite to as an signal boosting platform for key IPs moving forward. This way they not only pull in more players and make more money via engagement ops, but get big-money deals from movie studios to boot.