PUBG Battlegrounds was the most popular battle royale before Fortnite, and it appears to be making a comeback.
Since players began migrating from PUBG to Fortnite, the player base has been declining.
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It reached its peak concurrent players – around 3.25million players – around January 2018, which is higher than Fortnite’s current player count.
However, PUBG’s player base saw a huge decline after Fortnite’s battle royale began gaining popularity even while in early access.
The decision was made that PUBG would go free-to-play in January 2022, when the player count was just a tenth of its all time high.
According to a report by IGN, in the parent company’s earnings announcement for the first half of 2022, Krafton revealed that PUBG is receiving a large influx of players everyday.
It claims it has seen a “steady inflow of more than 80,000 new users per day” since PUBG went free-to-play.
February’s player count was double that of January with an average of over 600,000 concurrent players.
This is still much lower than Fortnite’s figures, but the game is seeing a slow but steady increase in its player base.
Despite being developed in South Korea, Krafton also revealed that 94% of its player base are outside the country.
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The increase in players has led to an increase in revenue overall for the company.
Krafton claims that PUBG’s revenue increases by 20% quarter over quarter.
Alongside the switch to a free-to-play model, the mobile version of PUBG is said to be the reason for its success.
Krafton claims it is the second highest mobile game by sales, driving the company’s mobile revenue.
PUBG has also implemented a number of new features to encourage players back to the game.
While it continues to receive various updates and changes via patches, the biggest news is that it will begin taking part in collaborations with other IPs.
The first of which is a crossover in Assassin’s Creed that was announced on August 8.
Written by Georgina Young on behalf of GLHF.
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