In-Game Currencies Explained: Why Every Game Wants You to Hold Two

In-game currencies almost always come in pairs. League has RP that you buy and Blue Essence that you earn. Fortnite sells V-Bucks and hands out more through the Battle Pass. VALORANT has VALORANT Points for the store and Radianite for upgrading skins.

Publishers do this on purpose. Two in-game currencies let a game reward you for playing and charge you for shortcuts at the same time. Once you see how each one works, the store looks very different.

Why do games use two in-game currencies?

The earned coin is there to keep you playing. Every match, mission or level-up drips a little of it into your account, and it usually buys the basics, like a new champion in League.

The bought coin is where the money is. It goes on skins, passes and bundles, and publishers price it so the numbers rarely line up.

In the US store, the smallest RP pack is 575 RP, while a standard skin costs 1,350. You end up buying 1,380 RP and keeping the 30 left over, which is a small nudge toward spending again.

None of this is hidden. Spending 1,350 of something feels lighter than spending $10.99, and every big publisher knows it.

The two coins also separate time from money. A player with more hours than cash can earn most of what they need. A player with more cash than hours can skip the grind. Both feel looked after, and the game keeps them both.

Where gacha fits in

The next step up is the gacha pull, where you pay for a chance at an item rather than the item itself.

Riot’s Sanctum is the clearest example in our corner of gaming. The DJ Sona Ultimate Remix will sit behind a Sanctum banner when Patch 26.23 lands on November 18. Every pull costs 400 RP, the top reward drops at 0.5%, and the skin is guaranteed by pull 40.

That guarantee, often called pity, is there because the raw odds would feel brutal. At 0.5% a pull, only about one player in five would land the skin within 40 tries without it.

The K/DA wave shows how far that reaches. Some of Riot’s latest K/DA skins sell straight from the store for RP, while others only come through Sanctum pulls. Either way, what you get stays in your account. It has no cash value, and you cannot sell it.

When the second coin can be redeemed

Sweepstakes sites are the one model where the second currency works differently.

These run on two coins as well. Gold Coins are for play only, and you can buy more of them.

You cannot buy Sweeps Coins directly. They come as a bonus with Gold Coin packages or through free routes such as sign-up and daily bonuses. Once you meet the site’s rules, you can redeem them for prizes.

That free route is what keeps the model legal in much of the US. A sweepstakes combines a prize and chance. It stays a sweepstakes by removing payment to enter, which is why every site has to offer a “no purchase necessary” way in.

Take ACE, a social casino sweepstakes site run by Full Stop Limited since July 2025. New players get 7,500 Gold Coins and 2.5 Sweeps Coins without buying anything.

Gift card redemptions start at 10 Sweeps Coins and cash at 75. You verify your identity and address before you redeem anything.

Because real prizes are involved, the rules are stricter than in any game store. ACE is 21+, it is not available in a long list of states, and California banned the model outright from January 1, 2026. Check the current terms for your state before you sign up.

How to keep track of what you spend across games

The catch with in-game currencies is that each one looks small on its own. Ten dollars here and a battle pass there add up fast when they sit in five different wallets.

• Check your purchase history. Riot and Epic both keep one in your account. Looking at a full year in one go is usually a surprise.
• Count everything together. RP, V-Bucks, gacha pulls and Gold Coins all come out of the same entertainment budget.
• Set the budget in real money. Decide on a monthly figure in dollars or euros, then convert, not the other way round.
• Spend the leftovers before you top up. Those odd 30 RP add up across a few purchases.

Buy the skins you want. Just decide what they cost you before the bundle sizes decide for you.