As of September 23rd, one of the most popular online games of the past few years has become free to play. Rocket League, developed by Psyonix, is an online arcade game of team car soccer. It was released in 2015 and has garnered over 10 million sales and currently has a 9/10 user score on Steam. It originally was priced for $19.99 USD, but Psyonix has made the decision to make the game completely free for anyone to download and play on Xbox, PS4, PC, and Switch.

But was making the game free-to-play the right choice? How will Psyonix make money off of users playing the game now?

It may seem like a bad business decision at first, but not everything about the game is free. Yes, while you can straight up play the game for free, there are a host of microtransactions for players to buy. Microtransactions are small purchases a player can make with real-world money inside the game. In the case of Rocket League, this happens to be different car designs, antennas, hats, colors, and other cosmetic items. While you can earn some cosmetic items for free by playing the game, some of the most unique and grand cars come at a cost. An exotic-rare care costs around $10 . Adding bonus featured to the car can cost anywhere from $2-$5. You can also purchase a battle pass, which is a limited-time list of rewards you can earn by playing the game, which also costs $10.

The cars don’t drive differently or give players advantages. They’re simply there for style, and they sell incredibly well. Rocket League isn’t the first of its kind to become free-to-play. Destiny 2, an original $60 game became free-to-play as well, with optional purchases of expansion packs and cosmetic items. Some games are free-to-play from the start and provide microtransactions, such as Apex Legends, Paladins, and of course, Fortnite. Fortnite’s daily rotating item shop and seasonal battle passes have earned Epic Games (The developers) billions of dollars in revenue, despite it being completely free.

In truth, Rocket League didn’t have the same amount of players playing the game in the beginning of 2020 as 2015 did. Making the game free-to-play will draw in thousands of new players, while getting older players to see what’s new with the game, all while providing microtransactions for those who want to spend money to stand out. An increase in players also means more viewers on streaming platforms, which creates advertisement for Rocket League. So making the game free seems silly at first, the added benefits will create heavy revenue for Psyonix, and keep their game popular for years to come.