PUBG: Battlegrounds went Free-to-Play early this year, The result was Battlegrounds earning a living, months of advertising-free play, and steady players fighting against a computer. To give you a sense of just how profitable a free-to-play model is, this week EA said that “Apex Legends, a game on the market for just over three years, has crossed $2 billion in lifetime net bookings”.
Given the amount of growth and changes that Battlegrounds have gone through since going free-to-play, it is easy to understand why Battlegrounds is making such good money right now. More importantly, Battlegrounds has consistently introduced new mechanics and features, making the title more appealing for players making the jump from its predecessor, Playerunknowns Battlegrounds (PUBG). Battlegrounds have received numerous updates since going free-to-play, adding new content and making the experience more engaging for players.
Before January, PlayerUnknowns Battlegrounds was available for $29.99 at Amazon for PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Android, and iOS, PlayerUnknowns Battlegrounds, colloquially known as PUBG, has the most intriguing origin story among all Battle Royale games. The game that would become PUBG had its roots as an Arma 2 and Arma 3 mod, before being licensed to Sony Online Entertainment to be used on H1Z1.
According to the earnings report by Krafton, sales were up 61 percent year over year to $82.3 million on the PC platform. As for the consoles, “the sales jump was even bigger, increasing 124 percent from the previous quarter and 274 percent year over year, though Krafton didn’t put a dollar figure behind those increases”. “The game also saw a “nearly tripled” increase in average monthly active users from Q4 2021”.
Krafton says the PlayerUnknowns Battlegrounds, which has been downloaded more than a billion times as of March 2021, brought in $307.1 million in revenue in the first quarter of 2022, this equals around 5% year on year growth. Its Mobile version known as PUBG or Battlegrounds Mobile India in some regions is also helping it pull such big numbers.
PlayerUnknowns Battlegrounds came around the same time as Fortnite, and you can see Fortnite is wildly different since it lets you construct structures and alter the playing field to your liking. Sticking with a Free-To-Play model from the start, Nowadays Fortnite has become a unique thing of its own. In other news Free Guy is also going Free-To-play in June and judging by this rise in Free-to-play, we hope to see more games taking the FTP route. New games with FTP models are on the rise in the Mobile market, Today news – Respawn has released Apex Mobile with an FTP model in India.
