Forge of Empires hits €100m lifetime revenue

Innogames has announced that Forge Of Empires has made over €100 million in lifetime revenue since its release in 2012. Not too shabby for a game with a development budget of €1 million.

"The huge success for Forge of Empires was only possible with the combination of high quality content and a well working, sustainable business model" said chief product officer Armin Busen.

"The free-to-play model allows us to reach a large target group of players and earn the revenue over a long period of time. A lot of players enjoy our games for years, which is why long-term motivation is one of the most important goals for all of our games"

The game now has around 25 million registered players.

Innogames added it expected another of its titles Grepolis, to hit the same €100 million in lifetime revenue milestone this autumn. Tribal Wars currently has a lifetime revenue of around €80 million but over a decade after release is making more money than ever.

"We invest a lot into further development and marketing after the start of a game. However, this investment is based on the first economic and gameplay figures from the game. They allow us to understand very early, how successful a game can become", said Busens.

"Only the initial development costs have a significant risk factor, afterwards, we can be very confident to get a decent profit on our spending. At the same time, we are able to increase the frequent turnover for a game over a very long run. In 2014 we earned more money with our first game Tribal Wars than ever before - eleven years after its launch."