As the world’s most popular mobile game by monthly active users, Tencent’s PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds has generated impressive revenue across the Apple App Store and Google Play this year. According to data presented by Safe Betting Sites, PUBG mobile ranked as the top-grossing mobile game in 2021, with close to 1.2 billion in revenue as of September.
By Jastra Kranjec.
Almost 30% Higher Revenues than other Two Top-Grossing Titles
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds was first released for Windows in December 2017, while the mobile version was created in March 2018. The SensorTower data show the popular mobile game generated $172 million in revenue that year.
In 2019 revenues exploded, with PUBG mobile players spending $1.5 billion across Google Play and App Store, a stunning 772% increase in a year.
Statistics show that last year, the popular mobile game generated $2.6 billion in revenue worldwide, a massive 70% increase YoY, and ranked as the world’s top-grossing gaming app. Almost 60% of that value came from China. The United States and Saudi Arabia followed with a 10% and 5% revenue share, respectively. The multiplayer battle royale game was also Tencent’s most downloaded mobile gaming title in 2020, with a total of 223.3 million downloads.
Highest-grossing mobile games
The impressive growth continued in 2021, with PUBG mobile generating almost 30% higher revenue than Genshin Impact and Honor of Kings, as the other two top grossing mobile games. According to App Magic data, the breakout hit of the Shanghai-based gaming company miHoYo Limited generated almost $923 million in revenue in the nine months of the year, $9.3 million more than the third ranked Honor of Kings.
Pokémon GO and Roblox round the top five list, with $691.4 million and $665.4 million in revenue, respectively.
PUBG Mobile Lifetime Player Spending Hit over $6.3 Billion
Mobile player spending of PUBG has seen steady growth over the past two years, with March 2020 and June 2021 as the peak months. Within the game, players can buy an in-game currency to purchase crates containing weapon customizations and character upgrades.
In March this year, the popular gaming title hit a new record, with more than $5 billion in lifetime player spending. Statistics show this figure significantly increased during the second and third quarter of the year, with players spending another $1.27 billion on the game and driving its lifetime revenue to over $6.3 billion.
