One free-to-play game raked in almost $1 billion last year

Crossfire from Tencent, using the free-to-play business model, pulled in nearly $1 billion in 2013 alone. This particular shooter’s achievement means that it has overtaken two behemoths in our era, League of Legends and World of Warcraft, in terms of revenue in 2013 alone, at least according to Super Data Research.

The numbers for 2013 are in! This month we take a look at the top ten earners in worldwide free-to-play. Tencent continues its dominance in the space with CrossFire and League of Legends, good for a combined annual gross of $1,581 million, and staying ahead of Nexon, which holds three of the top ten slots with a combined worth of well over $800 million. Wargaming managed to stay ahead the Western publishers, with $372 million in annual revenues for World of Tanks, and hoping to penetrate the US market by launching on the Xbox One. NCSoft’s Lineage I, now in its fourteenth year since launch, continues to generate revenue, and takes the number six spot with $257 million in total sales.