How Apex Legends, the hottest new video game taking on Fortnite, makes money
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/15/ea-apex-legends-how-it-makes-money-and-how-it-compares-to-fortnite.html
EA's new game Apex Legends sent the company's stock skyrocketing 16 percent on Feb. 8 when the company announced that it had 10 million players within 3 days of launch. Then, on Feb. 12, shares jumped again, 8 percent, when EA said the game had reached record 25 million players. The new free-to-play shooter is growing faster than the massively popular Fortnite, and investors are excited about its potential to earn EA big bucks.
Wall Street loves these types of games because they're free for anyone to play, which attracts huge numbers of players, but can earn publishers millions of dollars through "micro transactions" where players spend a couple of bucks here and there on virtual items.