PUBG earned a staggering $1 billion in revenue in 2018

Olivia Richman Published 24/04/2019

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds earned almost $1 billion in revenue last year. 

PUBG Corp. recently announced that its flagship battle royale title earned $920 million in revenue in 2018. 

In the company’s financial earnings report, it was revealed that PUBG Corp. made $310 million in profit off of that amount. Most of the loot was collected from PC users and digital downloads. This platform earned them $790 million, followed by mobile at $65 million, and console at $60 million. 

Another interesting finding pulled from the report stated that the company earned 53 percent of its revenue from Asia.

PUBG led the charge in an entirely new game genre when it was released in March of 2017. In a little over a year, PUBG Corp. announced that it had sold 50 million copies of the game on PC and Xbox by June 2018. 

In August, just a few months later, it was reported that over 100 million people had downloaded PUBG Mobile. That was four months after the game’s mobile version was released. 

Interestingly, PUBG saw a major decrease in active players as 2018 progressed. In mid-January, PUBG reached its all-time peak player count, a little over 3 million. But in the summer of 2018, its 24-hour peak was down to a little over 1 million. Still an impressive number, but only a fraction of what it had been just a few months prior.

Many people chalked this decline up to Fortnite’s concurrent rise in popularity, and the fact that Fortnite is free-to-play. But even though Fortnite has taken some of PUBG’s shine away, the game was still able to earn a cool $1 billion. 

Currently, PUBG Corp. is looking to step away from the overly saturated battle royale scene. PUBG designer Brendan Greene said he’s hoping to create another genre-bending game as part of the company’s Special Projects division. 

Olivia Richman

About Olivia Richman

Olivia has worked in media ever since graduating from college, with her coverage ranging from traditional newspaper reporting to digital coverage of all things gaming, online betting, and nerd culture. She has traveled around the world pursuing that coverage, from the far coasts of the United States to the busy downtown core of Tokyo, Japan. Olivia’s favorite games include Overwatch and Super Smash Smash Bros, and she has been published at Esports Illustrated, Inven Global, EsportsInsider, Upcomer, and elsewhere.

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