No Man’s Sky helps digital gaming generate $6.1 billion in August

Consumers continue to spend more money on digital game downloads and microtransactions.

Digital game sales reached $6.1 billion in August, according to intelligence firm SuperData Research. That’s up 11 percent year-over-year. As always, games like League of Legends, Overwatch, and Clash of Clans contributed a bulk of that total. But sci-fi universe-exploring game No Man’s Sky and mobile monster-catching sim Pokémon Go helped get even more people spending their gaming dollars on downloadable games and items as opposed to at retailers. The gaming industry is a $99.6 billion business annually, and the balance of power is slowly shifting away from physical media.

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“A batch of successful releases across console, PC, and mobile drove double digit year-over-year gains in market growth,” SuperData analyst and chief executive officer Joost van Dreunen said in a statement.

Spending on digital console products grew 16 percent year-over-year to $399 million. Perennial hit Call of Duty led that charge, but No Man’s Sky was No. 2 ahead of another long-time hit Grand Theft Auto V. World of Warcraft’s latest expansion, meanwhile, fueled growth in digital PC spending 21 percent to $401 million. Finally, the pocket monsters were super effective on mobile.

“Pokémon Go pushed the mobile market to $3.04 billion in revenue,” said van Dreunen. “[That’s] 16 percent higher than the same month last year.”

Finally, spending on microtransactions in PC games grew 8 percent year-over-year to $1.41 billion. Only premium-priced MMOs and social gaming on platforms like Facebook experienced any decline, down 4 percent to $226 million and down 2 percent to $604 million, respectively.

Here are the top-grossing digital games on PC, console, and mobile:

PC

1. League of Legends
2. World of Warcraft
3. CrossFire
4. Dungeon Fighter Online
5. Overwatch
6. No Man’s Sky
7. World of Tanks
8. DOTA 2
9. Fantasy Westward Journey Online II
10. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

Console

1. Call of Duty: Black Ops III
2. No Man’s Sky
3. Grand Theft Auto V
4. FIFA 16
5. Madden NFL17
6. Tom Clancy’s The Division
7. Overwatch
8. Star Wars: Battlefront
9. Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End
10. Fallout 4

Mobile

1. Pokémon Go
2. Monster Strike
3. Mobile Strike
4. Clash of Clans
5. Game of War: Fire Age
6. Fantasy Westward Journey
7. Puzzle & Dragons
8. Clash Royale
9. Candy Crush Saga
10. Clash of Kings