Black Ops 4, Fortnite, Red Dead Redemption 2, helped push digital spending to $4B over Black Friday

SuperData announced in its latest report the Black Friday 2018 shopping period saw a rise in digital game spending.

According to the numbers, digital game spending was up 14.3% compared to the same weekend in 2017. The firm attributed the growth to deals and big releases like Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 and Red Dead Redemption 2.

Premium console revenue climbed to $1 billion worldwide, which is up 24.5% compared to Black Friday weekend 2017. Premium PC sales also generated $586 million, which is an increase of 18.3% for the sector.

In-game spending, which covers digital items such as character skins and loot boxes, saw a year-over-year increase during the shopping period.

Fortnite in particular helped push digital sale items in the free-to-play segment to $64 million worldwide compared to the same time period a year ago.

In the US alone, in-game spending made up 80.1% of digital games revenue in 2017. SuperData said this contributed to $15.3 billion to all digital games spending in 2017 and it expects it to remain steady by end of 2018.

According to a recent survey conducted by the firm, 42% of players buy “most or all of their games digitally” compared to 27% who prefer physical copies.