PUBG Mobile Revenue Shoots Past $100 Million

PUBG Mobile reached a significant financial milestone in October 2018, surpassing $100 million in worldwide gross revenue. This achievement occurred within 200 days of the game’s monetization launch in mid-April 2018. While the title has demonstrated strong commercial performance, the analysis highlights that it reached this $100 million threshold more slowly than competitors in the battle royale genre, specifically Epic Games’ Fortnite and NetEase’s Knives Out. Notably, Fortnite achieved this revenue level twice as fast, even when accounting only for Apple App Store earnings.

The data, derived from Sensor Tower’s Store Intelligence estimates, covers global performance on the Apple App Store and Google Play, excluding revenue generated within China. Despite the absence of Chinese monetization, the United States emerged as the primary revenue driver, contributing 25 percent of total earnings, or $24.3 million. In the third quarter of 2018, the game ranked 31st among all mobile games globally by revenue.

Regarding user acquisition, the game has achieved substantial scale, recording over 225 million total downloads. China remains the largest market for the player base, accounting for 33 percent of all downloads, followed by the United States at 11 percent and India at 8 percent. These figures underscore the game's status as a top-tier mobile title, ranking as the 11th most downloaded app worldwide during the third quarter of 2018. The findings illustrate a clear disparity between the game's massive global download volume and its relative speed of monetization compared to its closest market rivals.