PUBG Mobile Doubles Lifetime Revenue to $3 Billion in Just Seven Months

PUBG Mobile from Tencent has doubled its lifetime revenue in just over seven months to more than $3 billion globally, Sensor Tower Store Intelligence estimates show.

This landmark comes from combined player spending from Game For Peace, the title’s Chinese localization, and global revenue for PUBG Mobile. In 2020 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.

Global spending in the title for the first half of 2020 was more than four times greater another major mobile shooter, Garena Free Fire from Garena, which has accumulated more than $300 million so far this year. Knives Out from NetEase, meanwhile, 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 2020.

The Chinese version of the game, Game For Peace, has generated the majority of revenue, accumulating $1.6 billion in lifetime player spending on China’s App Store alone, or 52 percent of the total. Worldwide, the United States ranks No. 2 with about 14 percent of revenue, while Japan rounds out the top three with 5.6 percent.

The App Store makes up the largest share of revenue, accounting for 79 percent of all player spending. Google Play, meanwhile, accounts for 21 percent of lifetime revenue.

To date, PUBG Mobile and Game For Peace have accumulated a combined 734 million downloads globally. India ranks No. 1 for downloads, generating about 175 million installs to date, or 24 percent of the total. China ranks just behind it with 16.7 percent of all downloads, while the U.S. ranks No. 3 with 6.4 percent.

Google Play accounts for the lion’s share of downloads at 65 percent of all installs, while the App Store represents 35 percent of the total.

World’s Most Lucrative Mobile Game

PUBG Mobile, thanks to the release of Game For Peace in China, has been a wild success internationally. Prior to the global COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns, the game was generating significant spending, and this has only accelerated with billions of consumers isolated at home over the past several months. It’s an example of an increasing number of major PC/console IPs making the transition to mobile and seeing high returns, with peers including Fortnite from Epic Games and Call of Duty: Mobile. Smart devices were once a platform none too friendly to the shooter genre, but now a few publishers are finding it to be a highly lucrative category, as it has been on other platforms for years.