League of Legends had a good year in 2013 – a very good year. Riot Games’ multiplayer online battle arena title earned an impressive $624 million in revenue, and yet it still came in a distant second to the South Korean online shooter CrossFire, which earned $957 million according to GI.biz.
Using info collected by SuperData, based on mictotransactions, three of the top five online games were from South Korea – CrossFire, Dungeon Fighter Online, and Maplestory. The other game in the top five is World of Tanks, which was first launched in Russia but is available worldwide.
There is a slight caveat to the list though. The numbers are all based entirely on microtransactions, and while World of Warcraft earned $213 million through this method alone, it also charges a monthly subscription fee which was not figured into the totals.
1. CrossFire – $957 million
2. League of Legends – $624 million
3. Dungeon Fighter Online – $426 million
4. World of Tanks – $372 million
5. MapleStory – $326 million
6. Lineage – $257 million
7. World of Warcraft – $213 million
8. Star Wars: The Old Republic – $139 million
9. Team Fortress 2 – $139 million
10. CounterStrike Online – $121 million
