Lords Mobile’s monthly revenue doubled to $90 million in January 2021, according to Sensor Tower.
The surge in spending was a direct result of developer IGG introducing a new battle pass to the free-to-play real-time strategy title.
Before this, the game averaged a monthly revenue intake of $42.5 million between October and December 2020.
Since January, the monthly average revenue has rocketed to $83 million, an increase of 95 per cent.
This leap has caused Lords Mobile lifetime player spending to cross the $2 billion revenue mark.
The Kingdom Labors season pass is described as an in-game special event where players can complete a variety of quests to earn prizes.
Players obtain a Silver Pass automatically but have the opportunity to purchase a Gold Pass to unlock further goodies.
Battle for the pass
Supercell similarly has found success with battle passes after it implemented a Farm Pass into Hay Day in December 2020.
The freemium farm game witnessed a rise of 62 per cent month-over-month to $14 million. Revenue has continued on an upward trajectory ever since, accumulating close to $156 million in March 2021 – its best month since July 2017.
The Finnish mobile giant has experimented heavily with the battle pass concept in the past, adding Season Challenges and a Gold Pass to Clash of Clans, resulting in a 58 per cent increase month-over-month in April 2019 to $67 million.
It was noted that Epic Games popularised the battle pass system on mobile via Fortnite, with the battle royale making approximately $1.2 billion in spending up until its exit in August 2020.
Lords Mobile originally launched on February 26th, 2016, going on to earn $825 million in worldwide revenue within its first two years of being live.
We also looked into how Lords Mobile monetises as part of our IAP inspector series.
