4 Million Bucks a Day. That's How Much Microtransaction-heavy Monopoly GO! Makes
Monopoly GO! was a huge success in December, earning more than the most popular mobile hits that month.
Monopoly is likely the most popular board game out there and even despite competition from newer, often more complex titles, it remains a cult-classic. Apparently the same goes for mobile Monopoly GO!, which earned an average of approximately 4 million dollars a day in December. The game's revenue for the entire month amounted to handsome 130 million dollars â?? the most in its history (via AppMagic/Game World Observer).
The game hit the market on April 11th last year and quickly gained popularity. Monopoly GO! has been downloaded over 50 million times from the Google Play Store itself, simultaneously ranking first among the most popular "board" games on the App Store.
But the list of the mobile version of Monopoly's successes doesn't end there. According to AppMagic Monopoly GO! was the highest-grossing mobile title of December. It defeated giants such as PUBG Mobile, Genshin Impact, Honor of Kings, Roblox and Candy Crush Saga. Analysts expect that January will be equally successful for the game and it may join the aforementioned titles as one of the kings of the mobile market.
Of course, like most mobile productions, Scopely studio's game is available as a free-to-play title â?? the production earns money from in-game transactions. However, some reviews of the game indicate that Monopoly GO!is another example of a mobile game whose creators went too far with micropayments.
These opinions did not translate into the overall rating of the game (4.7/5 in Google Play and 4.8/5 in App Store). Nevertheless, there are many negative reviews and all of them boil down to one issue: without paying, the fun quickly becomes boring and not very profitable. It's hard to get a good place in tournaments, and waiting for the dice to refresh takes too long.
Some players also suspect unfair tricks by players (bots) or creators (dice rolls strangely often lead the player to an empty field, forcing them to roll again). Regularly organized in-game events also do not help. A glance at the comments on X shows how fed up Internet users are with the events that increasingly demand paying.
