Wall Street Journal reports a new milestone for Rocket League, the runaway hit motorsports game, saying developer Psyonix is claiming the game has now raked in almost $50 million in revenue since launching for PC and PlayStation 4 (thanks MCV). They quote company founder Dave Hagewood on how they managed this:

“We paid the bills by working on some of the biggest games in the industry,” such as EA’s “Mass Effect 3” and Microsoft Corp.’s “Gears of War,” the 40-year-old said.

The few who played “Battle-Cars” loved it, Mr. Hagewood said, “so we saw that as a problem of awareness.”

His strategy for “Rocket League” was to get it into as many hands as possible. So he made it a free download for a month for Sony Corp.’s PlayStation Plus subscribers. Otherwise, it was $20 for nonsubscribers and PC users.

Psyonix also passed along the game to players who stream on YouTube and Twitch, in a bid to build word of mouth.