PUBG Mobile passes 100 million downloads, celebrates by hiding in a bathroom
PUBG Mobile has surpassed 100 million downloads on iOS and Android. Publisher Tencent Games revealed that it has zipped past that milestone in fewer than 4 months since its debut on smartphones and tablets. PUBG Mobile competitor Fortnite hit 100 million downloads on iOS alone in late July, according to data-tracking service Apptopia.
PUBG Mobile is a scaled-down version of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds from The PUBG Corporation. That military-style shooter ignited the battle royale genre, in which hundred players drop onto an island and win by outlasting everyone else in a fight to the death. In March, PUBG made the leap from PC and Xbox One to iOS and Android, and it has already generated more than $50 million in revenue, according to intelligence firm Sensor Tower.
“We want to thank our committed development team at Lightspeed and Quantum Studios and especially thank the devoted players around the world that continue to inspire us with their passion and dedication,” PUBG Mobile general manager Vincent Wang said. “We will continue to set the bar for mobile gaming and look to deliver even more great contents to our players later this year.”
That new content should help PUBG Mobile make even more money. When it debuted, it did not include any in-game purchases, but its developers have since introduced cosmetic items that enable players to customize their characters. In June, spending on PUBG Mobile saw a 365-percent increase thanks to the launch of a premium progression pass that is popular in other battle royale shooters like Fortnite.
And throughout this month, PUBG Mobile has partnered with Paramount Pictures for a sponsored event based on the hit Tom Cruise action film Mission: Impossible – Fallout.
While Fortnite has won the popularity contest (and all the money that goes with that), developer Epic Games is taking a chance when it comes to the Android version of that competitor. Instead of launching through the Google Play store, Epic is debuting its own launcher that fans will have to download and install separately. That could give PUBG Mobile an edge on Google’s mobile operating system.
Source: VentureBeat
