Worldwide digital games earnings reaches $11.6bn in January

Worldwide digital spending on digital games reached $11.6B in January, an increase of 15 per cent year-over-year.

That’s according to Superdata, who report that revenue was up annually across all platforms, but particularly on PC. During January, PC revenue rose by 31 per cent, console revenue increased by 24 per cent and mobile revenue was up 6 per cent.

Superdata also notes that the January data is one of the last months where year-over-year comparisons to pre-COVID game revenues will be available.

Looking at the PC sector, Riot Games’ Valorant has a particularly strong month in January, boosted by the launch of a new character and fresh season of content. From December to January, earnings were up 39 per cent while player numbers rose by 29 per cent. Previously lapsed players returning to the game made up 72 per cent of the growth in monthly player numbers.

World of Warcraft meanwhile saw revenue falling back to normal levels, as the excitement around its Shadowlands expansion subsided. From November to January, revenue fell by 61 per cent and user numbers declined by 41 cent (though these numbers do not include China). Superdata noted that these figures roughly match the pattern of previous expansions, though Shadowlands had a bigger launch.

Finally, the PC player base of Red Dead Redemption 2 hit its highest level ever in January, nearly doubling the user count of the console versions. In December and January, the sales of Red Dead Redemption 2 and Red Dead Online (sold separately since December) totalled a combined  1.8m, far higher than the console version at 611,000.

The top 10 titles for PC and console are listed below, with Dungeon Fighter Online topping the charts for PC, while Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is in the lead for consoles.