Report: PUBG Mobile passes $1.5 billion in lifetime revenue

PUBG Mobile has had a fabulous year. Packed stadium events, numerous celebrity collaborations, and now a whole lot of money.

The hit battle royale game surpassed the $1.5 billion mark in revenue, thanks to a 2019 in which the game generated $1.3 billion in gross revenue, according to a report by Sensor Tower. Player spending has increased substantially ever since the release of the battle pass in May 2018, with the game making $496 million in the third quarter of 2019 alone.

In China, Tencent was only able to monetize the game after releasing another version called Game for Peace last May. In spite of this, the Chinese version accounted for over 46 percent of the total revenue generated in 2019, or $614 million, indicating how big the market is in China.

Players from the United States spent, too, evident by $293 million in revenue in 2019, making it the second biggest market for PUBG Mobile. Japan ranked third with $117 million.

The majority of revenue came from Apple’s App Store with $1.08 billion or about 72 percent of the total revenue. As far as downloads, the game has been downloaded by nearly 555 million users worldwide, according to the report. The majority of installs came from India where it was downloaded more than 116 million times.

With the Google Play Store not working in China, statistics from the Android version aren’t available in the report. The Chinese App Store brought in 108 million downloads, however, making it the second biggest region for the game. The USA sits at third position with 8 percent of the total downloads, or 42 million installs.

These numbers put Tencent’s PUBG Mobile way ahead of its competitors. NetEase’s Knives Out, which is immensely popular in Japan, has made $915 million since its release. Fortnite has made $813 million from the Apple App Store. Data for the amount of player spending on Android devices isn’t available as the game hasn’t been released on the Google Play Store.  

And PUBG Mobile is currently showing no signs of slowing down. Regular updates, new modes, and regular esports competitions are keeping players hooked to the mobile battle royale game. With Erangel 2.0 and a fully-fledged esports leagues coming in 2020, the game is heading into another huge year.