PUBG: Battlegrounds has been one of the most successful battle royales since its release in 2017. And while its time as the best battle royale in the world was overtaken by Fortnite relatively quickly, PUBG has maintained its success over the years. However, time erodes the success of all games, and earlier this year PUBG made the switch to free-to-play to compete in the market in a new way.
According to the latest reports from krafton, PUBG’s transition to free-to-play has turned out to be a very lucrative option. Krafton, the publisher of PUBG: Battlegroundshas recently published a financial report for the first half of 2022.
The report stated that revenue for these six months was $729.5 million dollarswhich represents an increase of 2.86% year-on-year, butNet profits were $338.4 million dollarswhich represents an increase of 30.97% year-on-year.
It is true that more than half of that figure comes from the mobile business of kraftonwhat includes PUBG Mobile. However, the release of PUBG: Battlegrounds as a free-to-play game has also seen an improvement in finances.
According to the report, average revenue per user increased by more than 20% per quarter after the launch of PUBG: Battlegrounds as a free game. As if that wasn’t enough, Krafton also claims that new player accounts have been growing at a rate of over 80,000 new users a day.
So not only are more players signing up for PUBG: Battlegrounds accounts since the free-to-play launched, but Krafton is also making more money per user.
What is also striking is where PUBG: Battlegrounds is attracting its new audience. 94% of PUBG’s revenue during the second quarter of 2022 came from countries outside of South Korea, where the game is developed and published.
Among those markets is, naturally, the United States. If the goal was to expand the audience of PUBG in the main video game markets, it seems that Krafton has achieved it.