PUGB Mobile ranked highest-grossing mobile game of H1 2021

Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds, more commonly known as PUGB Mobile, has been announced as the highest-grossing mobile game of the first half of 2021, bringing in a total revenue of US$832mn from January 2021 to June 2021.

The company’s earnings are over US$150mn more than the next highest-grossing game, Honor of Kings, which grossed US$664mn. Genshin Impact is the third highest-grossing game and the only other game to gross more than US$500mn in the first half of 2021.

Rex Pascual, eSports editor at Safe Betting Sites, said: “The free-to-play, mobile version model is now adopted by numerous big titles but the PUBG franchise was one of the first major titles to do so. Proof of its success is that despite equally large rivals such as the Call of Duty franchise recently adopting the same model, PUBG Mobile remains on top of many gaming charts as shown by the data from H1”. 

PUBG increase in revenue is a “noteworthy” performance 

In the first quarter of 2021, PUBG Mobile recorded US$709mn in player spending – an almost 28% QoQ increase from Q4 2020. PUBG Mobile’s monthly performance in 2021 has also been noteworthy, recording more than $200M in player spending for each month since the turn of the year. This feat had not been achieved since the months immediately preceding the pandemic.

How has COVID-19 affected the mobile gaming market in 2020?

According to gamesindustry.biz, in Q1of 2020, there was a clear rise in the number of installs and revenue was also on the up, and game downloads surged in Q1, up 21% quarter-over-quarter, and 39% year-over-year to 13.4bn. Player spending, meanwhile, saw a smaller increase, rising 6.6% quarter-over-quarter and 16% year-over-year to $17.5 bn. 

While there was a clear jump in Q1, Q2 2020 saw an even sharper increase in both new installs and revenue, with the latter playing catch-up.  revenue peaked in May 2020 at $1.9 bn. The top five grossing games during the second half of 2020 in the U.S. were Roblox, Candy Crush Saga, Coin Master, Fortnite, and Gardenscapes.