EA’s live-service battle royale game has now generated $2 billion in revenue

If you had doubts about the live services model in video games, you might want to check out EA’s latest earnings report.

The third-party video game giant responsible for series like battlefield, The Sims and Need speed has unveiled Respawn Entertainment’s Battle Royale FPS Apex Legends has now generated $2 billion in revenue since its arrival in 2019.

What’s perhaps most impressive, as highlighted by our sister site Push Square, is the fact that Apex Legends’ returns are actually improving as society returns to a post-lockdown state. In the last fiscal year, the game saw a 40% increase in profits.

EA expects earnings from this title to improve with the release of Apex Legends on mobile next week. This kind of revenue puts this live service title ahead of popular mobile titles such as Pokemon GO, which has raised $5 billion in five years. games like Genshin Impact also reportedly make $1 billion a month.

Axios’ Stephen Totilo further notes how EA generated $5 billion total from live service gaming last year “and other” games compared to the $2 billion earned by his “full games”:

“Just gaming stats from big publishers you need to know: $5 billion vs $2 billion. This is how much revenue EA made from live services (“and others”) versus full games last year. If you need another one: $4 billion vs. $1.6 billion (this is last year)”

Apex Legends is available as a free downloadable title for the Nintendo Switch. Did you contribute to this income? Leave a comment below.