It was recently revealed that PUBG (Player Unknown Battlegrounds) has officially sold over 70 million copies worldwide in less than three years of its original launch date.
PUBG is considered to be the original battle royale prior to the popularization of the genre, PlayerUnknown’s BattleGrounds has, according to PUBG Corp, shipped over 70 million units since its official launch in December 2017. It had been in Early Access for nine months prior to that, originally being available for beta testers in March of the same year.
According a GamesIndustry report, this is the first time PUBG Corp has released sales figures since June 2018, when the game had sold around 50 million copies. While precise platform figures are not known, it’s worth mentioning that PUBG came to PS4 six months after that figure was announced, which likely contributed at least in part to the extra 20 million copies sold since.
The game began as a mod for Arma 3, and had since evolved into a global sensation. It stood as an inspiration for other battle royales since then such as Fortnite, Apex Legends, and most recently, Hyper Scape. The genre has been constantly evolving since the release of PUBG, including aspects of the game such as abilities shown in Apex’s character abilities and Hyper Scape’s hacks. Most recently, the genre (through Hyper Scape) has began including twitch-extensions, which allows the viewers to feel like they are witnessing a truly spectacular battle.
Other notable titles in the genre include Warzone, which recently added a 200 player mode making it the largest battle royale across all platforms. Additionally, Epic Games’ Spellbreak is coming out later this year.
The hold on the gaming industry that battle royales have will last for a long while, it was reported that Ubisoft’s Skull & Bones reboot takes heavy inspiration from Fortnite’s model.
Source: VG247
Stay tuned at Gaming Instincts via Twitter, YouTube and Facebook for more gaming news.
