Overwatch has made over $1 billion on in-app purchases, which mostly comes from its increasingly controversial loot boxes.
It’s not surprising that Blizzard is making a killing off of Overwatch‘s loot boxes, but just how much the controversial microtransactions have brought in maybe. Overwatch‘s in-app purchases have surpassed $1 billion.
The $1 billion figure comes from SuperData Research, which reports that Overwatch is Blizzard’s sixth franchise to make that much from microtransactions. It follows World of Warcraft, Call of Duty, Destiny, Candy Crush, and Hearthstone. Only 64 games on any platform have ever reached the $1 billion mark from microtransactions.
Part of Overwatch’s in-app purchase revenue comes from the relatively new Overwatch League tokens, which allow players to purchase skins directly, but the vast majority likely comes from loot boxes, which have been available for much longer and are far more popular. So popular that they’ve catalyzed an international pushback against loot boxes.
Loot boxes don’t guarantee any particular item; only a chance at a massive range of possible options, which has led lawmakers to liken them to gambling. Belgium took the strongest stance against loot boxes of any country when a court ruled that they could fall under the nation’s current gambling laws. As a result, Nintendo pulled Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp and Fire Emblem Heroes from app stores in the country and said that it would not release games with microtransactions there until the situation changed.
More recently, a bill called the Protecting Children from Abusive Games Act made its way to the U.S. Senate. The bill seeks to limit access to any game with microtransactions to children under 18 years old.
Despite the pushback, though, loot boxes continue to be popular. Game publishers are still pushing the practice as a significant revenue-earner, and some are going to increasing lengths to defend them. EA, for instance, recently addressed criticism of loot boxes from U.K. lawmakers by calling them “surprise mechanics” and saying that they were “quite ethical.” For its part, Overwatch shows no signs of scaling back on its microtransactions.
