'Player Unknown's Battlegrounds' Earnings Smash $700 Million in Eight Months
Ever since it was released back in March of 2017, "Player Unknown's Battlegrounds" has been smashing records left and right. In the space of eight months, the game has raked in over 20 million players and $712 million in revenue. But perhaps the game's biggest accomplishment is the reinvigoration of the battle royal genre paving the way for other games to follow suit.
The game's earnings have surpassed the earnings of two of its top competitors namely "Overwatch" and "Counter-Strike: Global Offensive" which earned $382 million and $341 million respectively. It even came close to matching the $756 million total revenue that the esports industry made last year.
"Player Unknown's Battlegrounds" currently accounts for 12% of the entire PC platform revenue. Other main contenders include "GTA Online," "Destiny 2," and the non-multiplayer focused "Divinity: Original Sin 2."
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While the majority of the revenue came from actual sales of the game, a large portion also came from the game's loot box system which allowed players to equip their characters with skins. While some loot boxes were free to open there were also premium boxes that required real-world currencies to acquire.
However, the current system is currently facing a lot of criticism was players often wind up getting crates that require keys to open instead of lockless crates that give players a new cosmetic. While some are more than willing to spend $2.50 to open their crates in the hope of finding a rare item, some are worried and even upset that their inventories are being filled by "worthless" crates.
The fact that they have no control over what type of crate they are getting when they spend their BP (PUBG's in-game currency) is also upsetting many players. Still, many consider this as a small complaint in a game that is otherwise doing everything right. At a time when EA is causing governments to be worried, PUBG Corp will probably be fine if their worst grievance with the game is worthless loot boxes.
"Player Unknown's Battlegrounds" is currently available for the Xbox One and PC via Steam.
