PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, commonly known as PUBG, is an online player-versus-player shooter game where up to 100 players engage in a battle royale until an individual, a duo, or a team is left standing.
It might not be the first battle royale game, but in regards to impact, the game surpasses many. PUBG has all you’d expect in a battle royale game. Additionally, its outstanding graphics create a naturalistic perspective with unique terrains, airdrops, or vehicles.
The game was released in 2017 and is available on PC and Xbox. The game was inspired by the 2000 Japanese film Battle Royale and is played from either the first-person or third-person perspective.
Since its release, the game has amassed considerable popularity and following. In this article, I will do an in-depth analysis of its user statistics, how it generates money, plus all you need to know about it.
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PUBG Background
As mentioned earlier, PUBG was released in 2017. Its beta version arrived in March 2017, but its official launch for PC was in December of the same year.
The game made it to consoles like Xbox One and PlayStation 4 on September 4th and December 8th, 2018, respectively.
It was in 2018 that PUBG also became available to most gaming platforms, a move that contributed to its worldwide prominence. In 2020, Google announced PUBG’s arrival on Google Stadia under the name PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds: Pioneer Edition.
However, while PUBG set a record for the longest claimable title on Google Stadia Pro, a source claims that the game somehow quietly left Stadia on August 1, 2021. The game was only available on the platform for 16 months.
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The PUBG Mobile Version
PUBG launched its mobile version for Android and iOS in March 2018. The worldwide release followed a successful impact of the game on PC and consoles. The mobile version met its expectations as one of the best-grossing mobile games available.
The PUBG mobile version is available in many countries around the world. However, the game is particularly popular in China, with millions of players downloading the game, as I will demonstrate in the user statistics section.
PUBG fans have also witnessed the release of Battle Ground Mobile India, a PUBG mobile version for India. The app was available on Android and iOS, but it is worth noting that the version was banned from the Indian market in 2022.
On November 11, 2021, PUBG released a futuristic mobile version called New State Mobile for Android and iOS. It might not be as popular as the PUBG mobile app, but it still boasts over 50 million downloads.
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PUBG Esports
PUBG is also a popular esports brand. PUBG has a professional player team that competes in fast-paced leagues and tournaments worldwide.
The PUBG Corporation also organizes and sponsors a series of esports events, including the PUBG Mobile Global Championship, the PUBG Continental Series, and the PUBG Global Championship.
The competitions feature individuals and teams who battle to win prizes in thousands of dollars.
PUBG Esports has gained significant attention in the esports industry, as seen with a series of pro teams that were established even before its official release.
Its success was proven during the 2018 PUBG Global Invitational event that took place in Berlin. All the events were fun and fair, marking the beginning of the battle royale esports system.
The global esports system was established in 2019. So far, Krafton has held 15 global events and supported over 120 regional events.
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PUBG’s Founder
Image: Gamelab Congreso Videojuegos via Flickr
Brendan Greene, an Irish game developer, founded PUBG in 2017. Better known as PlayerUnknown, Mr. Greene was always interested in battle royale games.
He gained tremendous fame after developing other battle royale games like ARMA 2, ARMA3, and H1Z1.
Due to the success of Mr. Greene’s premier games, Bluehole hired him as a creative director. Bluehole asked Greene to create a standalone, one-of-a-kind battle royale game, which eventually became PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds.
Brendan Greene was born in Ireland but later moved to Brazil to work as a photographer and web developer. During his stay, he got married but divorced after just two years.
At 37 years, divorced with only a $300 monthly income, Greene decided to head back to Ireland and start afresh. En route home, the idea of PUBG kept ringing in his mind.
Back in Ireland, he was forced to move in with his parents while surviving on unemployment benefits from the government. He used all his earnings to pay for computer servers to host his game mods.
His parents became worried about his obsession with making free games, but Mr. Greene was positive that the games would eventually pay off.
True to his word, the Sony Online Entertainment company, now called Daybreak Game Company, caught his eye.
Sony reached out in 2014, six months later, asking him to work for them as a consultant on his H1Z1 so as to help acquire a license for his battle royale concept in the game.
The consulting gig lasted for two years, though Mr. Greene doesn’t disclose how much he was paid for the job.
Bluehole, also called Krafton Game Union, contacted Mr. Greene in 2016 about helping him develop his battle royale title, which later became PUBG. The sales for the game took off from the start and steadily kept rising.
PUBG’s instant success was a shock to both Bluehole and Mr. Greene. In about six months, the game had already attracted three million players.
Today Brendan Greene serves as the director of special projects at the PUBG Corporation, with over 50 million copies of that game sold out and over 200 million mobile downloads.
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PUBG Net Worth
PUBG was launched in 2017, but the team had spent the entire year fine-tuning the game to fit modern consoles. In early 2018, the game debuted on PlayStation and Xbox.
Even before its launch, the game had already surpassed most battle royale games, including the prominent PC game League of Legends.
While PUBG garnered massive popularity worldwide, it struggled to break even in the United States as Fortnite by Epic Games overshadowed it. PUBG Mobile’s popularity and revenue skyrocketed in 2019 amid the Coronavirus pandemic.
A source indicates that, in March 2020, when the world went under lockdown, PUBG made $270 million in monthly revenue. In 2021, PUBG Mobile generated the highest revenue generating a total of $2 billion.
According to Sensor Tower, PUBG had surpassed $5 billion net worth. By then, the game generated an average of $7.4 million daily.
By the end of Quarter 3 of 2020, PUBG had accumulated an average of $704 million in player spending per quarter.
Quarter one of 2021 must have been the best quarter for the game as its mobile version generated $7.4 million in spending per day.
Today, PUBG has surpassed the $10 billion revenue mark. China still leads in terms of revenue generated by 60.3%, followed by the United States at 10.7%, Japan at 3.6%, then South Korea at 1.6%.
A source has disclosed that PUBG founder and lead designer Brendan Greene’s net worth is around $5 billion. Bluehole Inc. is now valued at $4.6 billion.
The source further explains that Mr. Greene’s yearly earnings are estimated at $920 million, while his monthly earnings are around $80 million.
Brendan is now included in the list of highest-net-worth celebrities. The truth is that Mr. Greene started earning when the PUBG game was still in its beta. His income has steadily increased ever since.
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PUBG Financing
In 2017, Tencent bought a stake in Bluehole in a move to acquire PUBG. The percentage of the stake was not disclosed, but it said that it was about 10%.
Later the same year, the Chine technology conglomerate announced its move to acquire PUBG to solidify its presence in China fully.
The truth is other companies expressed their interest in PUBG, but since Bluehole had grown to a six billion won company, it was highly likely that its shareholders would opt to sell it to Tencent.
In a deal that was reported to be valued at $1.27 billion, it meant Tencent would fully own PUBG, but PUBG remains an intellectual property owned by the PUBG Corporation. Tencent propelled the game into one of the world’s highest-grossing game apps in 2020.
By this time, the China market contributed 61% of the total revenue, followed by the US at 11%. `
In 2020, PUBG announced that it would cut ties with Tencent after the game was banned in India, citing security risks. India imposed a ban on the game’s mobile full and light versions.
In an effort to restore the Indian market, which had reservations about China-owned apps, PUBG announced that it would drop Tencent as the publisher of PUBG Mobile, promising to take charge of publishing the game in India.
PUBG Corporation also invested in 1Up Venture in an August 14, 2020 investment round valued at $10M. The Corporation also acquired Madglory in 2018.
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PUBG Business Model and Revenue
PUBG has made its way to the top since its introduction in 2017. Thanks to its robust business model that has intrigued marketers and analysts, it has become one of the highest-earning games globally.
Within a few months after its launch, PUBG had already attracted many players, mostly drawn from China and the United States. Its portfolio of loyal players has continued to grow ever since, justifying its revenue.
Notice that Tencent came in when PUBG had already established a name in the gaming industry. In fact, Tencent was riding on PUBG’s success to rake in millions.
But how did PUBG make such huge amounts of revenue?
The Nature and Popularity of the Game
PUBG is one of the famous battle royale games where players are required to destroy everyone in the field or join a team to complete the mission. The game features two maps and a range of weapons for your quest.
The game allows users to apply various strategies to become the last man standing. This freedom and many other aspects make PUBG popular and highly contribute to its overall profits.
PUBG managed to sell two million copies during the first few months after its release. By June 2018, the number had skyrocketed to 50 million.
This success placed the game at the top of the premium games segment after generating $1.028 billion in annual revenue.
PUBG is also a social game that has brought many old friends together. The game has options for live chats (voice and text), which separates it from other games in its category.
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The Business Model
PUBG Mobile creates revenue through in-app purchases. While the mobile app is free to download and use, players can still purchase more features, including weapons, armor, or other features that you cannot unlock without paying.
Just like any other platform, PUBG also makes a significant amount of revenue through ads. The revenue from ads might not be much compared to other sources, but it’s consistent and adds up to PUBG’s overall revenue.
PUBG also creates revenue through selling merchandise such as t-shirts and accessories, among other items. Such items target loyal players willing to carry the PUBG flag high.
PUBG also makes money through selling licenses to Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 versions, and Xbox. PUBG charges $29.99 for PS4 and Microsoft Windows and $19.99 for its Xbox version.
Lastly, PUBG hosts several tournaments and can reap, especially when the turnout is big. Overall, PUBG does not rely on one source of revenue. Game sales alone might not sustain further growth and development of the game, hence several streams.
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PUBG Revenue
China is the most lucrative market for PUBG. The most prevalent game in the China market is the mobile version of Game for Peace, which accumulated the game’s total revenue by $2.8 billion (55.4% of total revenue) on iOS by 2020.
The United States comes in second regarding player spending, contributing 12.7% of total revenue. The US is followed by Japan, which generates about 4.8% of the total revenue.
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PUBG User Statistics
PUBG is still one of the most popular games on Steam. The game has won a number of accolades, including the Best MultiPlayer Game Award in 2017 and the Best Mobile Game Award for its mobile version in 2018.
In February this year, PUBG recorded over 490 thousand peak concurrent players. According to Active Player, about 30 million players play PUBG daily.
Judging by the chart on the Active Player website, you’ll notice that the number of players has grown significantly since 2020.
Business of Apps also confirms that there are 30 million PUBG players on the internet today, adding that the popularity of the game goes all the way to when it was introduced to the market.
Business of Apps shares that in 2021 alone, the PUBG Mobile version was downloaded 127 million times, which decreased by almost half compared to 2019.
When PUBG was banned in India due to its association with the China-based tech giant Tencent, the daily active user number decreased by almost half.
By 2018 the users were 10 million. The number rose to 50 million in 2019, 65 million in 2020, and drastically dropped to 30 million after the ban.
The Indian ban also has a significant impact on the number of downloads. In 2020, PUBG had registered 218 million downloads, only to drop all the way to 127 million. By the end of 2021, PUBG had sold 75 million copies for PCs and consoles.
The number of PUBG users, excluding China, had risen past 55 million by the end of 2022. Today PUBG has registered about 1.2 billion players, 75 million on PC and console, and 1.1 billion on mobile.
In 2020, active players spent about 200 million hours on the PUBG Mobile app. In the first quarter of 2019, users spent 68.2 million hours streaming content related to PUBG. PUBG Mobile is ranked at 4.2 on Google PlayStore.
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Is PUBG Worth it?
Yes, PUBG is worth your time and money. It is still one of the largest titles in battle royale worth trying. Its performance is great and it can comfortably maintain a speed of 200fps on a PC.
It’s normal to experience occasional bouts of server stability, but PUBG should comfortably play on ninth-generation consoles.
PUBG has been around since 2017, which is a huge landmark for any game. The game market is highly competitive, but PUBG has stood the test of time.
I am positive that you will be fascinated with its casual mode that allows you to introduce new players to ensure your team is the luckiest. The game gives you a wide selection of weapons, maps, and vehicles to aid in your quest.
But certain aspects need to change. PUBG puts a lot of emphasis on older content, which might not appeal to modern gaming audiences. The game is quite long, hence beginners might struggle to thrive.
All in all, PUBG is a great game, free to play, so you won’t lose anything.
