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Fortnite is 2019’s top-grossing game despite making no money in China
Tencent is still waiting for the Chinese government’s permission to monetize the two-year-old battle royale shooter
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This article originally appeared on ABACUS
Fortnite might be two years old, but it’s still got gamers hooked. For the second year in a row, the battle royale shooter was the world’s top free-to-play game, making US$1.8 billion in 2019 according to market research firm SuperData. It trounced Dungeon Fighter Online and Honor of Kings, which came in at second and third.
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Despite its runaway popularity, Fortnite hasn’t quite caught on in China, the world’s biggest gaming market. Part of the reason is that it still hasn’t received government approval to monetize there, meaning it can’t sell anything to players.
In other places though, Fortnite fans are happy to shell out money for Battle Pass, which rewards those who complete certain challenges with in-game items. As SuperData notes, even though the game has fewer players than League of Legends, Fortnite’s PC players are more than twice as likely to spend in-game as LoL players.
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