PUBG Mobile surpassed three million players in the United States, with Android accounting for the majority of that figure, according to Thursday data from analytics platform App Ape. The popular mobile game reached its latest stateside milestone shortly after developer-publisher Tencent announced its title achieved 100 million global downloads, excluding China, Japan, and South Korea. The main implication of the previously unreported figure is that while PUBG Mobile is a global hit by every definition, the United States is still not playing a major part in that success.
The game currently has around 3.1 million American players, with Android accounting for over 1.7 million on that figure. Over 30-percent of PUBG Mobile players in the U.S. are women, with its user base launching the game 5.5 times every day on average, according to the same dataset. While PUBG Mobile is generally considered to be a more “hardcore” game than most other Android and iOS titles, the gamers it’s attracting are still predominantly casual players, with App App’s service suggesting the same individuals also play games such as Clash Royale and Pokemon Quest. Nearly half of all U.S. users are playing the game at least once per month, with over 14-percent launching it daily, the data reveals.
PUBG Mobile’s biggest rival, Fortnite, isn’t available on the Google Play Store and industry watchers remain divided on how that will affect its commercial performance. Tencent’s game had a large headstart on Android and is currently believed to be much more popular than Fortnite and the company has been partnering with both smartphone manufacturers and even movie studios in order to maintain its momentum and increase its appeal in the West. The discrepancy between its global and U.S. download figures indicates Tencent still has a lot of work to do if it hopes to see the mobile version of its battle royale game come anywhere close the popularity of the PC and console original.