In 7 months, here is how rich PUBG made its owner

Srinagar: Tencent Games-owned massively popular and addictive game PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds or PUBG Mobile, which is being widely played by youth in Kashmir as well, has hit the milestone of doubling its lifetime revenue to more than $3 billion in just seven months globally, a new report has said.

According to estimates from mobile app trends tracker Sensor Tower, the immensely popular game has hit the landmark from combined player spending from Game For Peace — the title’s Chinese localisation and global revenue for PUBG Mobile.

In this year alone, the two games have accumulated $1.3 billion, with revenue peaking at a record $270 million in March during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns across the globe. Global spending in the title for the first half of 2020 was more than four times greater than another major mobile shooter, Garena Free Fire from Garena, which has accumulated more than $300 million so far this year.

Meanwhile, Knives Out from NetEase has generated more than $260 million and Call of Duty: Mobile from Activision, in partnership with Tencent’s Timi studio, has picked up more than $220 million in revenue to date in this year.

It is pertinent to note that the Chinese version of the game, Game For Peace, has generated the majority of revenue, thus, accumulating $1.6 billion in lifetime player spending on China’s App Store alone, or 52 per cent of the total. Worldwide, the US ranks No. 2 with about 14 per cent of revenue, while Japan rounds out the top three with 5.6 per cent. The Apple App Store makes up the largest share of revenue, accounting for 79 per cent of all player spending. Google Play Store, meanwhile, accounts for 21 per cent of lifetime revenue.

To date, PUBG Mobile and Game For Peace have accumulated a combined 734 million downloads globally. Notably, India ranks No. 1 for downloads, generating about 175 million installs to date, or 24 per cent of the total. China ranks just behind it with 16.7 per cent of all downloads, while the US ranks No. 3 with 6.4 per cent. Google Play Store accounts for the lion’s share of downloads at 65 per cent of all installs while the Apple App Store represents 35 per cent of the total.