Chinese mobile game PUBG is the most played game outside of China, as of 2019. The US $776 million is the total valuation of PUBG in 2019. PUBG downloads from Google Playstore and the iOS App Store have generated this revenue.
PUBG stands for Player’s Unknown Battlegrounds. It is a battle royale game, developed by LightSpeed and Quantum Studio (internals of Tencent Games). However, there have been other developers in the past.
Who is in the race with PUBG?
In 2018, Knives Out was the most played Chinese game across the world, with annual revenue of US $465 million. This year, PUBG has defeated Knives Out.
In 2019, Knives Out (developed by NetEase) are runner-up while Rise of Kingdom (From Lilith Games) is in the third position.
What is the Gameplay?
It is a multiplayer, (player versus player) game. Anyone can play either solo, dual, or team.
In battleground, a helicopter drops every player at the specified flagged location via parachute. The player reaches one of the four flag points according to the map. Those areas are 8*8 Km, 6*6 km, and 4*4 km. The player has no gears while landing.
Once landed, players move ahead in their quest to different areas, buildings & ghost towns for new collectables. The collectables include weapons, vehicles, armours, and much more stuff.
As the minutes pass, maps shrink, increasing the chances of encounters. The player or team who is alive at the end wins the game.
Game for PEACE
Although, Chinese developer Tencent has massive revenue from PUBG across the world. It had to be modified/overhauled to meet specific Chinese regulatory requirements. It led to change PUBG’s name to Game for PEACE, in China.
Game for PEACE is a less violent version of PUBG and has more visuals indicating to Chinese patriotism.
Including both PUBG and Game for PEACE, Tencent earned a valuation of US$1 Billion.
Which countries play it most?
Chinese game PUBG is very popular in the USA and Europe. Gamers in the USA contributed to one-third of the total PUBG’s revenue.
Out of the total PUBG players (including Game for PEACE), 24% of users are in the USA. 2nd highest percentage is far behind the USA. It’s Germany, with 6% of users.
Revenue Boost
Last year, Tencent re-released PUBG mobile version, which increased the revenue from $25 million to $160 million. It is a growth of 540%, as per data from Sensor Tower Analysis. After re-release, PUBG’s activity & revenue increased by 39% from Jan 2019 to Dec 2019.
Even if we exclude Game of PEACE from the above equation, figures say an increase of 152% (to $63 million)
Conclusion
PUBG is the fastest-growing mobile game in the world right now, and it will continue to grow at this speed. However, many controversies have also arrived with PUBG games in the recent past, especially in India. Apart from all this, PUBG seems to be an addictive game.
