When Fortnite popularized the free-to-play model in 2017, many hailed it as a revolution. After all, who wouldn’t love the idea of a top-tier gaming experience without an upfront cost? But this model, while seemingly new to many, has actually been around for decades. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, online games like RuneScape and Neopets pioneered the concept, offering free access with premium content locked behind a paywall. The first game to officially use the free-to-play structure, Quiz Quiz, launched in 1999, complete with an item shop, advertisements, and premium currency—ideas that would later be refined by its creator, Lee Shong Chi, in his hit game MapleStory.
What was once an experiment in massively multiplayer online games (MMOs) has since become the dominant business model in the gaming industry. Today, games of nearly every genre, from shooters to role-playing games, have embraced the free-to-play format, raking in billions through in-game purchases and microtransactions.
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