25 Video Games That Have Made an Insane Amount of Money

We love video games — and we’re willing to spend our money on them. A lot of money. In America alone, people spent over $43 billion on games in 2018. Globally, video gaming’s global revenue was estimated to be nearly $140 billion in 2019.

For an industry that used to be associated with slackers and stoners, video gaming has become a money-making juggernaut, with some titles bringing in billions of dollars and selling millions upon millions of titles. In fact, if you could earn just a few days’ worth of revenue from some of these games, you’d be set for life.

Given the different categories of video games — arcade games, mobile games, console games, PC games and more — it’s difficult to compare which video games are the most lucrative.

These, however, are 25 video games that have made an insane amount of cash.

Who knew a game about hijacking cars, dealing drugs and gunning down innocent bystanders would be so profitable? Probably not even Take-Two Interactive, which published Rockstar Games’ insanely popular and mind-boggling profitable game in 2013. “Grand Theft Auto V” has sold over 185 million units worldwide and has consistently ranked in the top-10 best-selling games of the year since its debut. 

But that doesn’t even account for the game’s lucrative online component, which features a never-ending grind for bigger and better cars, apartments and yachts — all of which are most easily obtained by using real-world money. An analyst interviewed by Market Watch claims GTAV has made more than $7.7 billion, or more than any single media title in history. For perspective, James Cameron’s “Avatar,” the highest grossing movie in history, grossed $2.8 billion.

This top-down MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena) that released way back in 2009 has been gaining players (and their cash) ever since. “League of Legends” makes about $1.8 billion annually, according to Inc., and pulled in $1.4 billion in 2018. The game is also a hugely popular Esport, with tournaments for million-dollar prize pools watched by millions of viewers from around the world occurring yearly.

After its release in 2012, it felt like everyone was playing “Candy Crush Saga.” And considering its revenue, they probably were. “Candy Crush Saga” is a freemium mobile game which makes its money by selling extra lives, new episodes and boosters. Its highly addictive nature has players paying to keep playing (you have to wait if you run out of lives) and, interestingly, the game has actually made more money last year than ever. According to Sensor Tower Store Intelligence, “Candy Crush Saga” made $930 million between August 2017 and July 2018.

“PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds” — also known as PUBG — is the game that started the battle royale craze. It stormed onto the PC scene in 2017 and sold over 22 million copies during its first nine months. Since then, the game has found tremendous success in its free-to-play mobile offering and its ports to Xbox One and PlayStation 4.

In game sales alone in 2018, PUBG earned over $1 billion just on PC and console systems. Its mobile port has earned about $158 million worldwide as of late 2018, according to Sensor Tower.