- PUBG Mobile has 50 million active daily customers
- It has total of more than 400 M downloads
PlayerUnknown’s mobile game Battlegrounds, PUBG Mobile, now has 50 million customers outside China, making it not only the world’s most famous mobile game but also – in combination with its Chinese crowd – the world’s highest-sized mobile game, generating $146 million in income just last month.
Now with more than 400 million downloads, PUBG Mobile has 50 million active daily customers–nearly double what it has had for seven months. Although free-to-play, a number of cosmetic in-app products, mainly skins and clothing products, are sold by the mobile game.
PUBG Mobile introduced globally in March 2018, but after increasing problems with the Chinese government’s gaming sector laws, PUBG Mobile–which for Tencent in China was supposed to be an enormous moneyspinner–discovered its in-app purchases blocked.
Tencent has published a clone game called Game for Peace and while playing in almost precisely the same manner, modifications to curtail violence and encourage patriotism now imply that the game can be monetized effectively.
According to a study from Sensor Tower and The Financial Times (paywall), this rebrand has increased the game’s revenue, netting the publisher $14 million in its three-day opening on iOS. Chinese Great Wall Securities brokerage further adds that while PUBG Mobile itself produced $76 million in income last month, Game For Peace–only sold in China–also produced $70 million, making it the most lucrative mobile game in the world in May.
After several months of uncertainty and a ban on video game approvals, the new regulator revealed in January that an official in the propaganda department of the Chinese Communist Party had finished reviews on the first batch of games, but the long ban had a major effect on the fortunes of the games industry. One of China’s largest gaming companies, Tencent, allegedly cut its marketing budget after a market slowdown driven by China’s regulatory disturbance. Although still a “highly lucrative” business, analysts estimated the “complete debt of the Chinese business has risen to a record $26 billion” and anticipated the business to show its slowest development in years when reporting on its income.
Consequently, Tencent announced restructured for the first time in six years following the challenges dealing with Chinese governmental regulations for the gaming industry. For the first time in 13 years, the megacorp was struck with a drop in revenues due to the very same Chinese regulatory problems that pushed the restructuring decision.
Also lately, Epic Games Store introduced its digital PC storefront in China, “silently unlocked” previously this month, and made almost all of its games accessible for buy in mainland China. While the site presently does not accept credit cards, it accepts payment through WeChat and AliPay internet suppliers. Games rates such as Borderlands 3 and Metro Exodus are “significantly smaller than in North America” as “a low-cost region.”
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