How Overwatch Makes Money From Players
Overwatch is a pay to play game, which means you buy it once and then get to play it for free, like Guild Wars 2 and The Elder Scrolls Online. You might wonder, how does a game like this make money? Especially enough money to front tournaments with prizes up to $100,000. Blizzard has certainly made a lot of money just from selling copies of the game, but that isn’t what’s going to keep it alive and its servers running in the long haul. What’s the answer? Loot boxes. Delicious loot boxes. Sure, if you play the game enough you can earn those loot boxes for free, but do you really want to wait to get that skin you’ve been absolutely dying to get since you found your favourite hero? Wouldn’t it be easier just to spend a bit of dosh to increase your chances of getting that skin sooner rather than later?
The prices for loot boxes currently go from 2 for $1.99 to 50 for $39.99. It’s a good box to dollar ratio and isn’t that hard of a sell for players who are really into the game but are frustrated either with how long it takes them to earn loot boxes or how long it takes to get the item they really want. The game also has seasonal events in which special items are available, giving players even more incentive to spend real world money to buy boxes to increase their chances of getting what they really want, and with new skins being released on a fairly regular basis there’s no sign of loot box purchasing slowing down any time soon.
What else is there?
Aside from loot boxes there is also official Overwatch merch available on Blizzard’s gear store which includes clothing, beach towels and hardcover journals to the ever popular Funko Pop! figures. Add to that a player base that’s topped 25 million and copies still selling and it’s pretty clear that Overwatch is going to continue to make an impressive amount of money for the foreseeable future.
