League of Legends Tops MMO Revenue Chart; Asia Top Market

Oct 24, 2014 09:07 AM EDT

(Photo : Riot Games) League of Legends has topped the MMO revenue chart for this year, beating out competitors in Asia and pay-to-play games like World of Warcraft.

Massively multiplayer online games (MMOs), including multiplayer online battle arena (MOBAs) and online first person shooters (FPS), have become a big part of the gaming industry and continue to grow in revenue, especially some of the newer titles like "DoTA 2" and "Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft."

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The gaming world for multiplayers games still resides mostly in Asia, although Europe is catching up with an active presence in most non-Asian MMOs and MOBAs. Super Data Research shows free-to-play vs. pay-to-play alongside revenue per video game, in a new report from Super Data Research.

(Photo : SuperData Research)

"League of Legends" continues to dominate the MOBA scene, with revenue peaking at $950 million this year. The advancement in Chinese adoption to League of Legends, alongside a growing presence in North America and Europe, has kept the MMO steadily growing into its fifth season.

The following two games come from the South Korean market: "Crossfire" ($897 million) and "Dungeon Fighter Online" ($891 million) - both games are huge in South Korea, Japan and parts of China, but lack the presence in other markets.

"World of Warcraft," the subscription based MMO from Blizzard Entertainment, continues to slowly dwindle down. The MMO still generates $728 million revenue annually, and is the highest grossing pay-to-play game on the market. But it is slowly dying and Blizzard needs to step up their content announcements if they want to keep numbers.

The fifth place takes a big dip in revenue, with "World of Tanks" gaining $369 million annually. This is half of "World of Warcraft" and one-third of the annual revenue "League of Legends" pulls in. This can be put on "World of Tanks" not having a large presence in the Asian market, relying more heavily on North America and Europe.

(Photo : SuperData Research)

"Maplestory" and "Lineage I" sit at sixth and seventh respectively, two more games prominent in the Asian market. "Lineage I" is a very old game, with two sequels and developer Jake Song has moved on to create "ArcheAge," a new MMO appealing to North American audiences.

"DoTA 2" comes in at number nine - Valve's MOBA is definitely gaining more recognition in China, but lacks a good market in South Korea. Valve is also less concerned about making money through micro-transactions, allowing players to own every champion at the start.

"Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft" comes at number 10, surprising considering this is one of the newest games on the list. Card games have always been popular among the gaming community, but Blizzard has made Hearthstone a commercial success, alongside being an incredibly popular online game with a growing eSports scene.

TagsLeague of Legends, MMO, MOBA, Blizzard Entertainment, FPS