In short: PUBG Mobile surpassed 20 million daily active players and is celebrating the achievement with a new map, as well as a number of other content additions, Tencent said Thursday. Regardless, third-party data obtained by AndroidHeadlines suggests the game is still largely irrelevant in the United States, with the country accounting for less than 2.5-percent of its global player base, and that’s in spite of the massive popularity of the original PUBG for PC and Xbox One among American gamers.
Background: The previous season saw portable gamers play nearly a billion PUBG Mobile matches, Tencent revealed, adding that its 20-million daily user mark doesn’t include China, Japan, and South Korea. The milestone coincides with the release of Sanhok, a new jungle map that’s smaller than Miramar and was designed for shorter matches with more frequent battles. The new area includes a number of extra vehicles and weapons such as the Muscle Car, Bulletproof UAZ, QBZ, and the Flare Gun. Season Data page now shows more information and covers all seasons, the clan ranking and chat systems have been enhanced, and new anti-cheating measures are part of the package as well. Irrespective of the player milestone, Thursday data from insight platform App Ape reveals PUBG Mobile currently has just over 535,000 daily active players from the U.S. Around 290,000 of those are Android gamers, with another 245,000 playing on iOS. The game also lost around 73,000 monthly active American players compared to August, according to the same source.
Impact: PUBG Mobile is one of history’s most successful action games by user acquisition momentum that is still going strong six months following its global debut, in part thanks to numerous partnerships and frequent content updates, as well as high-quality optimization. Regardless, millions of American PUBG players still don’t appear to be particularly interested in experiencing the mobile version of the battle royale hit, and with developed countries traditionally being the home to the largest in-app spenders in the world, that audience composition is likely limiting the revenue potential of Tencent’s mobile spin-off.