The success of PUBG and Fortnite spawned an entire industry of battle royale games, some of which came with interesting new ideas, but far more blatantly attempting to copy the successful formula of the two most well-known franchises.
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) launched in December 2017, although it had spent almost an entire year in Steam’s Early Access. Throughout the year, the team fine-tuned the PUBG experience, and it debuted on Xbox and PlayStation in early 2018.
Even before it officially launched, PUBG had surpassed almost all other games on Steam in terms of peak concurrents. It surpassed League of Legends, the most popular online PC game, in August 2017, four months before its official launch.
While PUBG garnered global popularity, it struggled to compete in the United States, as Epic Games’ Fortnite overshadowed it. When it launched on iOS and Android in 2018, PUBG Mobile managed to surpass Fortnite in downloads, through its large userbase in China and India, but it still lagged behind Fortnite in revenue.
Due to Tencent’s involvement in PUBG, as an investor in the developer Bluehole, it managed to pass China’s censors. That has come back to bite the organisation however, as India recently banned PUBG Mobile in the country, due to its connections to Tencent Games.
PUBG Mobile was already starting to ascend in 2019, but with the coronavirus pandemic, the game has skyrocketed in both downloads and revenue. In March 2020 when the world went into its first lockdown, PUBG Mobile made $270 million a month in revenue.
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Get Started NowEpic Games spat with Apple and Google, which resulted in the removal of Fortnite from both app stores, has added more fuel to PUBG Mobile’s fire. That has been somewhat dampened by India’s recent ban of the title.
We have collected data and statistics on PUBG Mobile. Read on below to find out more.
PUBG Mobile key statistics
- PUBG Mobile was the highest grossing game in 2020, generating $2.6 billion in revenue
- It has been downloaded over 730 million times
- In Q3 2020, over 50 million people played the game daily. An additional 70 million played the Chinese version, Game for Peace
- Game for Peace is responsible for over 50 percent of PUBG Mobile’s revenue generation (Sensor Tower)
- Before the ban, half of all PUBG Mobile players were from India (App Annie)
- Over 75 percent of PUBG Mobile players are male in India, 60 percent are male in the United States
PUBG Mobile Overview
Launch date | 9 February 2018 |
HQ | Seongnam, South Korea |
Developers | PUBG Corporation, xFAIRx |
Publishers | VNG Game Publishing, Tencent Games, KRAFTON, xFAIRx |
Industry | Video games |
PUBG Mobile Revenue
Quarter | Revenue |
Q2 2018 | $18 million |
Q3 2018 | $66 million |
Q4 2018 | $92 million |
Q1 2019 | $150 million |
Q2 2019 | $341 million |
Q3 2019 | $514 million |
Q4 2019 | $505 million |
Q1 2020 | $675 million |
Q2 2020 | $619 million |
Q3 2020 | $643 million |
Q4 2020 | $555 million |
Q1 2021 | $709 million |
Source: Sensor Tower
PUBG Mobile Users
Date | Daily Active Users |
April 2018 | 10 million |
December 2018 | 30 million |
April 2019 | 50 million |
March 2020 | 65 million |
December 2020 | 30 million |
Note: India’s ban of PUBG Mobile sunk the games daily active users by more than half.
Source: Tencent
PUBG Mobile Downloads
Date | Downloads (Cumulative) |
November 2018 | 200 million |
June 2019 | 400 million |
March 2020 | 600 million |
June 2020 | 730 million |
Source: Tencent
PUBG Sales
Date | Sales |
May 2017 | 2 million |
June 2017 | 4 million |
August 2017 | 8 million |
September 2017 | 10 million |
June 2018 | 50 million |
December 2019 | 60 million |
July 2020 | 70 million |
Note: This is for sales of PUBG on PC and console. PUBG Mobile is free-to-play.
Sources: Daniel Ahmad, Statista
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