How does Overwolf make money?
By: Gil Tov-Ly
Tags: Gaming, App Development, Startup, Technology, Esport

The deep dive

It feels appropriate to open this discussion with the way some people think we make most of our money — collecting user data and selling it to the highest bidder.

Well, actually, we DON’T and we won’t sell any data.

With that cleared up, it’s worth noting that in the past, we had a deal with NewZoo — a trusted research agency that publishes reports on the gaming market. NewZoo used aggregated usage data from Overwolf to create reports like “the top 20 core PC games”, or the most used hardware. No personal information, just aggregated stats like the ones you’d find on the Steam software and hardware surveys.

This partnership accounted for under 1% of Overwolf’s revenue in 2019 — so even back then this was definitely not where our money came in from. In June 2020 we realized we’re not comfortable sharing any data with anyone, not even a research agency. So we ended that relationship and amended our privacy policy to reflect that.

We’ve also added ways for users to opt-out from data collection done by the Overwolf client to personalize your experience and analytical purposes, which you can find on the “Privacy tab” on Overwolf settings.

So how DO we make money then?

The TL;DR is that Creators on Overwolf can add “in-app ads” or subscription plans to their apps. Whenever developers choose to monetize their apps we get a 30% cut — kind of like the Apple Appstore.

A little over 85% of Overwolf’s revenue this year has come from these ads and subscriptions, with about 70% of which being passed on to app creators. For mods and addons, 70% of the revenue generated by CurseForge is distributed to authors based on mod usage, in a similar way to how Spotify pays artists.

Considering how big ads are in the revenue pie, they’re probably worth explaining. A lot of people think Overwolf is the one that places ads in apps, but that’s not actually the case. Overwolf is an engine for building apps, just like Unity is an engine for building games. And just like Unity has a “Unity ads” service for game devs, Overwolf has, well, an “Overwolf ads” service. We allow creators to add “in-app ads”, which are muted videos or static banners shown inside the app window. Many app creators choose not to include ads in their app, but creators who do must comply with Overwolf’s dos and don’ts — meaning no intrusive ads, no popup ads, no ads that run when the app is minimized, and more. Basically, nothing that interferes with the gaming experience.

The remaining 15%

So what about the rest of our revenue? The next 11% came from the brands that run marketing projects and special activations on Overwolf — Like the Intel Gaming Access loyalty program, or The 2020 Alienware Games.

We like working on these activations because we get to design fun and engaging activations that make sense for the brands, we get paid for it, and we also share amazing rewards with the community. In the past year, alone gamers won over 600,000 game keys, $100,000 in in-game currency, and other amazing rewards like Alienware PCs and peripherals.

The last 3% came from mobile ads, originating from Overwolf’s mobile apps — most notably Brawl Stats and Stats Royale.

And that’s the big picture

And that’s it, that’s the big picture. We hope this video and post helped shed more light on how Overwolf makes money, and how much of that money is actually passed on to creators.

If you’d like to see more deep dives and videos like these from us, please share your feedback at ideas.overwolf.com.