PUBG, abbreviated from PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, is a massively successful multiplayer battle royale shooter game, originally released in 2017 on Steam's Early Access by Bluehole Studio, a South Korean developer. Inspired by the Japanese film Battle Royale, PUBG popularized the Battle Royale subgenre of action games.
PUBG has grossed over over $16 billion in revenue and sold 75 million units in software sales. This makes it the best-selling PC game, the third highest-grossing mobile game, and the second highest-grossing battle royale game (behind only Fortnite, which was inspired by PUBG).
History[]
PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds started as a mod similar to DayZ. The game's creative director, Brendan "PlayerUnknown" Greene, had been inspired by the Japanese movie, Battle Royale (2000), and wished to make to a game based on that concept. This mod for DayZ, called DayZ: Battle Royale, released in 2013. Around that time, Greene saw a stream event of DayZ called Survivor GameZ which further inspired him for more randomness and engaging the streaming community. After he finished consulting with Daybreak Company for H1Z1, he was picked up by a South Korean publisher, BlueHole Studios, which was seeking to make a globally released game that followed the service model.
The game had a closed beta in early 2017 with about 80,000 players. BlueHole launched the game on Early Access in March 2017, with a planned release in Fall 2017. In July 2017, they announced the full release would be delayed a few months.At E3 2016, Microsoft announced a timed exclusive port to the Xbox One. BlueHole assured fans that Microsoft was only helping the game run on the Xbox, though it was later announced that Microsoft would be publishing the game themselves.
The game quickly rose in playerbase and viewerbase. The game is one of the fastest selling new IPs with over 10 million in sales in less than 10 months. The sales are so fast, SteamSpy is seemingly unable to keep track on the sales consistently. The game is the most played on Steam with the active player counts even beating DOTA 2. The game is currently one of the most watched on Twitch, consistently beating League of Legends.
Gross revenue[]
| Year | PC | Consoles | PUBG Mobile | Combined |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | $900,000,000[1] | $90,000,000[2][3] | N/A | $990,000,000 |
| 2018 | $1,028,000,000[4] | $4,391,000,000[5] | $5,831,000,000+ | |
| 2019 | $288,000,000[6] | |||
| 2020 | $124,000,000+[7] | Unknown | ||
| 2021 | $333,600,000[8] | $2,900,000,000[9] | $3,233,600,000 | |
| 2022 | $451,200,000[10] | $2,100,000,000[11] | $2,551,200,000 | |
| 2023 | Unknown | Unknown | $1,650,000,000[12] | $1,650,000,000+ |
| Total | $5,300,000,000[13] | $90,000,000+ | $11,041,000,000 | $16,431,000,000+ |
Unit sales[]
| Platform | Date(s) | Sales | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam | 67,900,000 | ||
| Steam | 2017-03-23 to 2018-07-01 | 50,000,000+ | [14] |
| 2018-11-01 to 2020-03-01 | 15,000,000 | [15] | |
| 2020-06-04 to 2020-06-07 | Free weekend | [16] | |
| 2020-07-01 to 2020-11-01 | 2,900,000 | [15] | |
| 2022-01-12 | Free-to-play | [17] | |
| Xbox One | 9,390,000+ | ||
| Xbox One | 2017-12-12 to 2018-09-04 | 9,000,000+ | [18] |
| 2018-10 | 390,000 | [19] | |
| 2018-11 to 2022-01 | Game Pass | [20] | |
| 2022-01-12 | Free-to-play | [17] | |
| PlayStation 4 | 2,800,000 | ||
| PlayStation 4 | 2018-12 to 2019-11 | 2,800,000 | [21] |
| 2019-12-03 to 2022-01 | PlayStation Now | [22][23] | |
| 2022-01-12 | Free-to-play | [17] | |
| Total | 75,000,000+ | [24] |
Sales history[]
- April 2017 - 1 million (PC)[25]
- May 2017 - 2 million (according to SteamSpy)[26]
- June 2017 - 4 million (PC)[27]
- August 2017 - 7 million (according to SteamSpy)[28]
- August 2017 - Gamescom - 8 million (PC)[29]
- September 2017 - 10 million (PC)[30]
- October 2017 - 15 million (according to SteamSpy)[31]
- December 2017 - 30 million (PC)[32]
- June 2018 - 50 million[33]
- December 2019 - 60 million[33]
- July 2020 - 70 million[33]
- December 2021 - 75 million[24]
References[]
- ↑ Makuch, Eddie (January 2, 2018). "PUBG Passes 3 Million Concurrent Users On PC". GameSpot. https://www.gamespot.com/articles/pubg-passes-3-million-concurrent-users-on-pc/1100-6455835/.
- ↑ https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2018/01/11/playerunknowns-battlegrounds-3-million-players-xbox-one/
- ↑ https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2018/09/04/playerunknowns-battlegrounds-full-product-release-now-available-on-xbox-one/
- ↑ Market Brief – 2018 Digital Games & Interactive Entertainment Industry Year In Review. SuperData Research. Nielsen Media Research.
- ↑ Chapple, Craig (25 March 2021). "PUBG Mobile Grosses $5 Billion After Generating an Average of $7.4 Million Per Day in 2020". Sensor Tower. https://sensortower.com/blog/pubg-mobile-five-billion-revenue.
- ↑ 2019 Year In Review: Digital Games and Interactive Media. SuperData Research. Nielsen Media Research (January 2, 2020).
- ↑ Lyons, Bethany (July 17, 2020). "The success of Fortnite is big enough to share". SuperData Research (Nielsen Company). Archived from the original on February 2, 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210202060730/www.superdataresearch.com/blog/the-success-of-fortnite-battle-royale-is-big-enough-to-share.
- ↑ "Krafton, Inc. Reports $1.57 Billion USD in Revenue for 2021, the Highest in the Company's History". PUBG Studios (Krafton). 10 February 2022. https://press.krafton.com/KRAFTON-INC-REPORTS-157-BILLION-USD-IN-REVENUE-FOR-2021-THE-HIGHE.
- ↑ "State of Mobile Game Monetization Report: Half of 2021's Top Grossing Titles Utilized a Season Pass". Sensor Tower. March 2022. https://sensortower.com/blog/state-of-mobile-game-monetization-report-half-of-2021stop-grossing-titles/.
- ↑ "Krafton, Inc. Reports Record Revenue of $405.7 Million USD for Q1 2022". PUBG Studios (Krafton). 13 May 2022. https://press.krafton.com/KRAFTON-INC-REPORTS-RECORD-REVENUE-OF-4057-MILLION-USD-FOR-Q1-2022.
- ↑ https://app2top.ru/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/state-of-mobile-gaming-2023.pdf
- ↑ <Batchelor, James (2023-12-20). GamesIndustry.biz presents... The Year In Numbers 2023. GamesIndustry.biz.
- ↑ https://gamalytic.com/game/578080
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20180701063414/steamspy.com/app/578080
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 https://gamalytic.com/game/578080
- ↑ https://steamspy.com/app/578080
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 Mollie Taylor (2022-01-12). "PUBG: Battlegrounds is now free-to-play". PC Gamer. https://www.pcgamer.com/pubg-battlegrounds-is-now-free-to-play/.
- ↑ https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2018/09/04/playerunknowns-battlegrounds-full-product-release-now-available-on-xbox-one/
- ↑ https://playtracker.net/insight/game/25826
- ↑ Xbox Game Pass Master List
- ↑ https://playtracker.net/insight/game/29726
- ↑ https://blog.playstation.com/2019/12/03/pubg-joins-the-ps-now-lineup-today/
- ↑ PlayStation Plus Master List
- ↑ 24.0 24.1 https://www.theverge.com/2021/12/9/22821220/pubg-playerunknowns-battlegrounds-free-to-play-release-date
- ↑ https://twitter.com/PC_Gamer/status/851450382245130240
- ↑ https://www.newsledge.com/playerunknowns-battlegrounds-sales/
- ↑ https://twitter.com/PLAYERUNKNOWN/status/877996976356286464
- ↑ https://www.newsledge.com/playerunknowns-battlegrounds-sales/
- ↑ http://www.ign.com/articles/2017/08/20/gamescom-2017-playerunknowns-battlegrounds-passes-8-million-in-sales
- ↑ https://venturebeat.com/2017/09/05/playerunknowns-battlegrounds-has-sold-10-million-copies-in-six-months/
- ↑ http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1445708
- ↑ Williams, Mike (22 December 2017). "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG) Review: First Man Standing". USgamer (Gamer Network). https://www.usgamer.net/articles/playerunknowns-battlegrounds-pubg-review.
- ↑ 33.0 33.1 33.2 https://www.statista.com/statistics/791791/pubg-player-base-world/