PUBG Mobile players have spent over $3.5 billion on the battle royale game, according to market analyst Sensor Tower, with the most recent $500 million coming over the last 72 days.
The mobile version of PUBG (PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds) — the game that made the battle royale genre popular — has been out since 2018. 2020 has been a big year for the game, as quarantined folk have turned to PUBG Mobile for entertainment. It has earned $1.8 billion and has seen 198 million downloads so far this year.
PUBG Mobile reaches this milestone just a few days after India’s ban of the game in that country. According to Sensor Tower, 24% of the game’s global downloads come from India. That may seem staggering, but India only accounts for 1.2% of PUBG Mobile’s revenues. Still, PUBG Corporation is working to get that money flowing again, and so it is dropping Tencent as the game’s publisher in India, with PUBG Corporation taking on those responsibilities itself.
Tencent is a Chinese company, which is why PUBG Mobile was banned in India. China, however, remains the game’s most lucrative market, accounting for 53% of its global revenues.