PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds made over $700 million last year

pubg revenue 2017

Welcome to your latest regular update on the success of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds. This time, we’ve got details on the game’s total revenue in 2017, and as you might expect that number is astronomical.

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Market research firm SuperData report that PUBG generated $712 million in revenue through the eight months it was available in 2017. By comparison, the entire esports industry made $756 million in 2017. If you’re looking for a hyperbolic comparison, that means PUBG is nearly as profitable as the entire concept of esports – though the latter will certainly have easier room to grow in 2018.

Esports is expected to become a billion dollar industry this year, and the study cites League of Legends and Overwatch as particular drivers of viewership, noting unique viewers numbered 258 million in 2017.

That’s all small compared to the free-to-play market, though, which generated $82 billion last year, 89% of which was across PC and mobile. 2.5 billion people are playing F2P titles on those platforms. Wait, stop, read that number again – one in three people on the planet are playing free-to-play games.

PUBG broke 3 million concurrent players last year, and even if the game’s growth has slowed somewhat it’s still continuing to find success.