- PUBG Mobile has scored $240 million in revenues for the last month
- This comes soon after the game’s third anniversary and the milestone of a billion downloads it reached
- Despite that success, Free Fire grossed higher in the USA, and Honor of Kings did so as well in China
PUBG Mobile continues to floats its name as one of the most profitable mobile games ever. Yet, in March, it was overtaken by some of its competitors despite impressive results.
The Good-Looking Revenues for March
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds Mobile got the prestigious second place in mobile game revenues for the last month, analytics company Sensor Tower shared.
The game piled over $240 million in March, with 60% of them coming from Peacekeeper Elite, the game’s Chinese release. In comparison, the USA contributed only around 10% to that revenue.
The game also had a new wave of content introduced in March’s patch 1.3, which added a new game mode, a new gun, a vehicle, and a new competitive season. The patch surely contributed to PUBG Mobile’s growth.
However, for all its successes, PUBG Mobile was overtaken in both the USA and China by two of its competitors.
PUBG’s Fearsome Competitors
Free Fire by the Singaporean company Garena was the game that surpassed PUBG Mobile in the States in terms of revenues for 2021’s first quarter. Garena’s game got $100 million from the USA market since the beginning of the year, juxtaposed to $68 million for PUBG. Compared to 2020, this is 4.5 times growth in favor of Free Fire.
While Free Fire is more popular in Asia, Garena has been steadily trying to market it to western audiences by doing collaborations with western media. Some of them include DJ KSHMR, the Money Heist series, and most importantly, the addition of professional football player Christiano Ronaldo as a playable character by the name of Chrono.
In China, there is another competitor, and it isn’t a battle royale shooter. Honor of Kings is a mobile game by Timi Studios, owned by Tencent. Despite being on the market for six years, Honor of Kings was never released outside of China and Taiwan. However, it still remains one of the leading titles with $257 million for March, 96% of which from the Chinese audience.
In the USA, Call of Duty: Mobile ranks third. However, outside of the USA’s popularity of shooter titles, the market worldwide seems pretty varied. According to Sensor Tower, the top-grossing games for March are:
- Honor of Kings
- PlayerUnknown’s Battleground Mobile
- Genshin Impact
- Uma Musume Pretty Derby
- Coin Master
- Roblox
- Pokemon GO
- Garena Free Fire
- Candy Crush Saga
- Rise of Kingdoms
Despite its strong competitors, PUBG Mobile remains a force to be reckoned with. The $68 million the game piled up from the USA in the first quarter of 2021 mark a 9 percent growth compared to the first quarter of 2020. The total number of $240 million and the second place only to Honor of Kings still shows how far the game has gone.
PUBG mobile recently celebrated both its third anniversary and the milestone of having a billion downloads. Krafton, the game’s publishers, have also been looking forward to expanding their company.
