Big Bang earns 3.6 billion won a year through game character sales... T.O.P is on top

In July of 2009, Big Bang were released as game characters for online FPS game "Sudden Attack". Gamers are able to control game characters similar to stars and listen to around 80 sound effects recorded by the stars themselves.

According to the developers of "Sudden Attack", Game High, Big Bang sold 1.03 million characters (including random boxes) between July and December of 2009. The characters cost from 1,300 to 18,900 won.

The fact that collecting all the Big Bang characters caused the characters of gamers to become stronger also affected the sales. When all the characters were collected, players would gain a special primary weapon and gain unlimited grenades.

The sales rankings were in the order of TOP (38%), Daesung (27%), Taeyang (22%), Seungri (13%). G-Dragon was not counted in the rankings as his character was not on sale as a single item.

According to Game High, Big Bang characters earned 300 million won a month on average. Representatives stated that they started with star marketing in 2008 with singer Rain, and the revenue generated in the first two weeks since release was in the order of Big Bang, 2NE1, and Rain.

Big Bang is estimated to have earned around 3.6 billion won (3.25 million USD) in one year from "Sudden Attack". The revenue from game characters based on stars is usually split 7:3 or 8:2 between the game providers and the entertainment companies, so YG Entertainment could have earned around 1.1 billion won from game character sales.

When taking into account that the revenue from concerts earned by Big Bang's company, YG Entertainment, in 2009 was 4.9 billion won, the revenue earned from games is a significant amount. According to the game research company, Game Tricks, "Sudden Attack" holds over 10% of the time market share in PC rooms and is one of the top games in Korea. Because of this, it's estimated that Big Bang is the celebrity to have earned the most from game characters.

Given that stars are paid around 200~300 million won for a 6 month contract involving CF shooting and modeling for games, it's certain that Big Bang has hit the jackpot with "Sudden Attack". Especially TOP has managed to earn both popularity and money thanks to his intense eyes and strong character in the game.

Source: MT via Flibbertigibbet @ 6theory forums