We’ve been covering SuperData’s monthly reports on the state of the industry for a long time – since before we were MassivelyOP, for that matter. And for as long as I can remember, we’ve grumbled over the fact that SuperData’s methodology is opaque, at least in regard to the revenue ranking charts the analytics firm, purchased by Nielsen in 2018, puts out every month. For us, as indie journalists rather than megacorps with the budget to splash out thousands on full reports, we’re left looking at relative rankings and occasional nibbles from the data. It’s useful, don’t get me wrong, especially for getting a feel for long-term trends – but it’s far from perfect.
So when some games start to trend downward in the charts, it only makes sense that they might object, especially when they look bad. That’s exactly what Epic Games is doing now. According to GIbiz, Epic has disputed SuperData’s methodology and data when it comes to Fortnite, though not any one specific report. Here’s Epic’s shade:
“SuperData does not and has not ever had access to Epic’s Fortnite revenue data, and SuperData’s reports do not accurately reflect Fortnite’s performance. We are disappointed that SuperData has repeatedly published wildly inaccurate reports about Fortnite based on what we believe is questionable methodology. While we do not and have not publicly shared revenue numbers for Fortnite, we will say that SuperData’s reports do not align with reality.”
SuperData, for its part, claimed to GIbiz that it has a “proven methodology and validation process” and says it will stand behind its reports. That’s vague, of course, but it’s just as vague as the complaint, since Epic didn’t actually counter or contradict any specific claim, number, or report.
Most recently, the analytics firm asserted that Fortnite’s revenue, long in decline, had sunk to its lowest levels since November 2017. That’s an odd month indeed, as it’s one of the only ones we don’t have coverage of. Apparently that’s because SuperData didn’t actually do a post that month – just a tweet over the holidays, which The Ancient Gaming Noob snagged for posterity (cheers, Wilhelm). Fortnite wasn’t in the top 10. It’s not on the October 2017 chart, either. In fact, it appeared in the rankings only in December 2017, when it really began challenging PUBG. So SuperData’s claim isn’t superficially unbelievable.
