Apple is making a case that it’s better to be the platform than the creator.

The tech giant made more from gaming than Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, and Activision Blizzard combined in fiscal 2019 despite not making any games, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Using documents revealed in the lawsuit against Apple brought by “Fortnite” maker Epic Games, the paper determined that Apple made $8.5 billion in operating profit that year from gaming — namely through the 30% developer fee charged for apps and in-app purchases on its App Store. 

Apple said during the trial that these figures were higher than its actual operating profit from games.

• Apple took in $10.95 billion in gaming revenue and $4.92 billion in all other App Store revenue in 2019, according to analyst Sensor Tower.
• Those figures grew respectively to $13.54 billion and $6.77 billion in 2020.
• The company’s “Services” sector, which includes the App Store and its subscription gaming platform Apple Arcade, earned $17.49 billion in net sales for the quarter ending June 26. 

The company’s dominant position faces legal and regulatory challenges. Epic filed an appeal in its lawsuit after the judge declined to determine whether Apple holds a monopoly in the mobile gaming sector.

Of the $13.54 billion Apple earned from App Store mobile games in 2020, 31% came from China, which is currently cracking down on the time minors spend gaming, often only allowing them to play for three hours a week.

Major League Baseball welcomed fans back into the stands in 2021, but attendance was at a generational low. 

The league saw 45.3 million fans attend regular-season games in 2021, a 33.9% drop from the 68.5 million in 2019, and the lowest figure since 1984.

Certain caveats apply: Many teams only opened to full capacity by midseason, and the Toronto Blue Jays played at alternate sites until late July due to Canadian travel restrictions. 

However, fans also watched fewer games from home.

• Viewership was down 12% compared to 2019, as of late August. This was partly related to regional games moving from Fox to Bally Sports in March, cutting off some viewers with YouTube TV, Dish, and Sling TV.
• The “Field of Dreams” game brought in viewership 135% above that of a typical Fox-broadcasted game.
• MLB will begin a seven-year, $5.1 billion broadcasting deal with Fox next year.

MLB is headed into a potentially contentious labor negotiation, with the current collective bargaining agreement expiring on Dec. 1. Owners have sought to expand the MLB playoffs as a way of attracting more fans.

The Athletic anticipates profitability in 2023, but it has absorbed heavy losses over the last two years.

The subscription-based sports media company lost $41 million in 2020, after absorbing a $54 million loss the year before. Revenue rose to $47 million in 2020 from $26 million in 2019.

• The San Francisco-based company projects $77 million in revenue with $35 million in net losses this year.
• It projects revenue to increase 54.5% next year, followed by another 31% jump in 2023, bringing a $15 million profit that year.

The company has hired investment banking firm LionTree to find a buyer at a valuation of more than $750 million.

The Athletic previously held investment talks with the New York Times and Axios. Fanatics also explored acquiring the company. 

Investor Dave VanEgmond told FOS in June that it would make sense for a traditional broadcaster looking to increase its streaming subscriptions to purchase The Athletic. VanEgmond previously advised The Athletic on its BetMGM sports betting partnership.

Crypto-based game “Axie Infinity” has exploded in popularity this year, and now its developer Sky Mavis has a massive valuation to prove it.

The company is valued at close to $3 billion after raising $150 million in a Series B round led by Andreessen Horowitz, per The Information.

This development comes as the game’s native AXS token reaches all-time high prices, and shortly after a report that Andreessen Horowitz is raising a gaming-focused fund.

“Axie Infinity” is a blockchain-enabled play-to-earn title where players battle and collect animated monsters that double as NFTs. In-game transactions are set to bring in $1 billion in revenue this year, with around $2 billion generated in total since “Axie Infinity” launched in 2018.

• The game’s active user count reached 1.85 million on Monday, a 4,500% increase since April.
• Sky Mavis takes a 4.25% commission fee on in-game transactions.
• The company’s last funding round before this was a $7.5 million Series A in May, which included Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian.

All of this is familiar territory for Andreessen Horowitz, which led a $150 million funding round for Roblox in February 2020 and contributed to a $250 million investment in NBA Top Shot creator Dapper Labs this year.

The firm also established a $2.2 billion fund in June for blockchain-based startups.