The State of Mobile Battle Royale Games in Q2 2019

Battle royale games have flourished over the past year. Several titles were among the top 25 grossing titles worldwide in Q2 2019, including PUBG Mobile from Tencent (No. 2), Garena Free Fire from Garena (No. 11), Knives Out from Net Ease (No. 15), and Fortnite from Epic Games (No. 21). Our analysis of the category’s worldwide downloads and revenue over the past several quarters is below, taken from our latest quarterly Store Intelligence Data Digest.

Top Battle Royale Games by Worldwide Downloads

Among top battle royale games, only Garena Free Fire exhibited positive year-over-year download growth in Q2 2019 at 83 percent. Other titles saw Y/Y downloads decline by more than 35 percent.

PUBG Mobile totals in Q2 2019 include Game for Peace installs in China. Those who installed Game for Peace after previously downloading PUBG Mobile did not count towards this total.

Battle royale games have achieved success in regional markets, such as PUBG Mobile / Game for Peace in China, Garena Free Fire in Latin America, and Fortnite in the United States. PUBG Mobile / Game for Peace had nearly 100 million App Store installs in China between January 2018 and June 2019. PUBG Mobile had 55 million installs in India, its second largest market.

Top Battle Royale Games by Worldwide Revenue

Since PUBG Mobile was able to monetize in China with Game for Peace, the game earned more than 50 percent of its revenue in China. It grossed more than $141 million in China in Q2 2019.

Garena Free Fire grossed more than Fortnite and Knives Out in Q2 2019. Revenue increased 46 percent quarter-over-quarter, led by Brazil with more than $55 million in gross revenue.

Despite not being available on Google Play, Fortnite is second in worldwide revenue since 2018. Its $679 million grossed on the App Store was the most among battle royale games. Knives Out’s success in Japan has helped it earn more than any other battle royale title. Nearly 85 percent of Knives Out revenue since 2018 is from Japan.

A few battle royale games have been very successful in different markets. Each of the top four countries have a different highest grossing battle royale game. Japan was the top country by battle royale game revenue despite being only No. 10 by downloads. Knives Out had $600 million in gross revenue in Japan since 2018.

Interested in additional Q2 2019 insights? Download a free copy of our Q2 2019 Data Digest Report:

Store Intelligence users can see app revenue and download estimates in addition to historical performance metrics on the Sensor Tower platform. Our estimates include worldwide downloads for the App Store and Google Play between Jan. 1, 2018 and June 30, 2019. Apple apps and Google pre-installed apps are excluded. We report unique installs only. Android estimates do not include third-party stores. Figures represent aggregate installs of all app versions, ex: Facebook and Facebook Lite.