Microtransactions make up 88% ($92.6 billion) of digital game spending

Microtransactions and live service purchases are the bedrock of digital gaming. Traditional publishers like EA, Take-Two, Ubisoft, and especially Activision all make hundreds of millions (and even billions) on mTX every year. Others like Tencent further dominate with a smorgasbord of mobile titans. SuperData's latest Black Friday figures illustrate just how important mTX is to a digital games economy dominated by F2P games.

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According to SuperData's latest report, in-game purchases make up a whopping 88% of 2020's digital games industry revenues. Mtx and in-game purchases made up $92.6 billion from January - October 2020. Full game paid downloads made just $11.6 billion. Players spent nearly 8x more money buying things in games than they did on the games themselves, and microtransactions made up about 88% of 2020's current digital revenues.

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These figures aren't all that surprising given how F2P games typically lead the charge. Mobile is on top, followed by consoles and then PC. F2P games like Fortnite, League of Legends, Genshin Impact, Dungeon Fighter Online, and Roblox pull in tremendous revenues from in-game purchases every year on all platforms.

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Other tidbits from the report include Black Friday metrics. SuperData estimates digital gaming made $3.9 billion from Black Friday to Cyber Monday, down 10% YoY.

"Despite the lower numbers on Black Friday through Cyber Monday, spending on digital games is growing significantly this holiday season,"said Carter Rogers, Principal Analyst at SuperData, a Nielsen company.

"Even individuals who might have bought physical games at brick and mortar retailers in a normal year are opting for the convenience and safety of downloading games."