There once was a time when anyone wanting to game had a stark economic choice. Either they stumped up for a relatively expensive game to either download or play on disk (remember those?) or they didn’t play at all.
But times change and now there are hundreds of thousands of games out there that are free to play and readily available.
The vast majority of these are available from Apple’s and Google’s respective app stores and many more are being added all the time. In fact, it’s the emergence of mobile gaming that has led to this profusion of free games. Just as people have become unwilling to pay to download apps, the same is true of games.
However, calling them free games is only part of the story. Somewhere along the line the developers are going to need to try to make a profit and that means players will end up paying in some way.
This has earned these games the umbrella name of freemium, a compound adjective which brings together “free” and “premium”. We’ll get on to the money-making aspects of these games shortly. But first, let’s take a look at some of the best titles out there.
Fortnite
We’ve got to start with the biggest of them all. Fortnite’s Battle Royale can rightly be said to have taken the world by storm. Fortnite is often seen as the lightning rod for streamers really pushing the market forwards and beginning to make huge sums from the title. There is a registered player base of a staggering 650 million people worldwide, 230 million of them being counted as active. Aside from being a money-making game for its creators Epic, tournaments have also shown it offers huge earning potential for those who are at the very top of their game.
Genshin Impact
Fans of anime have also fallen heavily for Genshin Impact, the fantasy role-playing game that takes place in a world called Teyvat. Within it, there are seven nations across which the protagonist called The Traveler has to strive to be reunited with their twin who they became separated from upon landing. Along with a guide called Paimon, they meet different creatures on the search and get involved in many different situations.
Aviator Game
Aviator is a slightly different kind of game and one which offers the simplicity of the very best freemium experience. Essentially, it’s a test of nerve, judgment and timing. You are in control of a plane ascending in the sky. The higher you climb, the more the stake money that you have invested multiplies until, that is, it disappears completely. Like many of these games, while there is a free option, you can also choose to play for real money. So, it’s a question of picking the perfect moment to cash out for maximum returns. You can play this Aviator Game online – and it promises to be a potentially very rewarding experience.
Valorant
Since its release in 2020, Valorant has become one of the most popular free first-person shooters out there as well as becoming huge in esports. Working as a member of a team you are given either an attacking or a defensive role as part of a mission. Starting with a relatively modest armoury you can build this up over time.
Bomberman Battle Royale
This is a classic mash-up between the original Bomberman game and a battle royale concept. When you play you’ll be pitted against 24 other competitors with the objective to be the last one standing. As the title spells out you’ll do this by dropping bombs – but it’s cuter than it sounds. That’s because the characters you’ll be able to play as will include bears, cats, rabbits and even red pandas and the bombs are more like dropping balloons than dangerous explosive devices.
The Freemium earning model
So far so good. But here’s how the premium aspect comes in. Once you start playing the games in question pretty soon you’ll start to be encouraged to make in-game purchases.
It can be for anything from a new appearance to your character to enhanced weaponry. There are also “loot boxes”. These are mysterious collections of things that can help game players. But only by buying one do you discover exactly what they contain.
These, in particular, have come in for a great deal of criticism as they are effectively asking players, often children, to take a gamble on what they might receive for their money.
In the case of the mega-successful Fortnite, their freemium model has also expanded out into the offline world with merchandise ranging from T-shirts to collector cards. In 2022 these, along with all the other purchases, earned a staggering $20 billion worldwide.
So with money like this to be made, it would seem that the freemium model is here to stay. One day it might even chase all paid-for games out of town.