Epic’s Most Profitable Game Ever? Infinity Blade for iOS

Infinity Blade, the Epic Games iOS sword-fighting RPG that has become a fixture at Apple event keynotes recently, has earned well in excess of $30 million since its debut just 18 months ago. And according to Epic CEO Tim Sweeney, that makes it the company’s biggest moneymaker ever.

“The most profitable game we’ve ever made, in terms of man-years invested versus revenue, is actually Infinity Blade,” Sweeney said during his GDC Taipei keynote today. “It’s more profitable than Gears of War.”

That’s an astonishing claim, because Gears of War is a $1 billion Xbox 360 franchise. Infinity Blade is a $5.99 mobile game that’s available on iOS devices only. But, remarkably, it’s a bigger moneymaker. Proof positive that the mobile gaming market is scaling rapidly and ripe with opportunity. “Nowadays, the high end of the game business is in these console games,” Sweeney said. “Activision invests almost $100 million per year in Call of Duty. And who can realistically afford to do that?”