Tencent's PUBG Mobile Revenue Shoots Past $100 Million—But Fortnite Did It Twice as Fast

Tencent's popular battle royale title PUBG Mobile was introduced outside of China this past March. Shortly after, Tencent began monetizing the game in mid-April—just not in its home territory. Still, in just under 200 days since then, PUBG Mobile has grossed more than $100 million on the App Store and Google Play according to Sensor Tower's Store Intelligence estimates.

PUBG Mobile's road to $100 million was longer than other mobile titles in the battle royale genre. As the chart below shows, both Fortnite from Epic Games and Knives Out from NetEase were able to reach this milestone in fewer days. In the case of Fortnite, it was more than twice as fast—and ended up grossing $300 million in 200 days. It’s also worth noting that Fortnite's numbers for that period are based solely off of income from the App Store.

Last quarter, PUBG Mobile grossed an estimated $66 million worldwide. This quarterly revenue was enough to rank the title No. 37 among all apps, games or otherwise. Among games, it ranked No. 31—again, without Chinese spending in the picture. The largest contributor to this revenue figure was the United States, with its players accounting for 25 percent of spending at $24.3 million.

Despite not contributing financially, China boasts the game’s largest player base. The country is responsible for approximately 33 percent of PUBG Mobile's more than 225 million downloads to date on Apple and Google's store. The next largest contributors to downloads are the U.S. and India, which account for 11 and 8 percent, respectively. With the support of these countries, the battle royale title has become one of the most downloaded apps since its launch. In Q3, PUBG Mobile was the No. 11 most downloaded app worldwide on the App Store and Google Play.