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PUBG Mobile Surpasses Genshin Impact to Become the Second-Most Profitable Mobile Game, with Record Breaking Q3 Revenue

By Julius Chen
Nov. 30, 2021 updated 06:25

PUBG Mobile from Tencent has seen a record-breaking quarterly revenue of $771 million for Q3 2021, reaching $7 billion in lifetime revenue, Sensor Tower data shows.

In 2021, combined with its Chinese version, Game for Peace, PUBG Mobile has gained a total revenue of $2.6 billion from the global App Store and Google Play, ranking second only to Tencent's other mobile game, Honor of Kings, taking the spot from the RPG juggernaut Genshin Impact from miHoYo.

The largest portion of the 7 billion USD revenue comes from China, where Game for Peace earned almost $4 billion and accounted for 57% of the total revenue. Outside of China, PUBG Mobile has generated more than 3 billion USD, with the US being the second largest contributor at approximately 11.8% and Japan being the third at 4.2%.

In China, revenue from the App Store accounted for 81% of PUBG Mobile's revenue, while Google Play only accounted for 19%. However, in global markets, revenue from the App Store and Google Play accounted for 56.6% and 43.4% respectively.

As one of its flagships exploring overseas market, PUBG Mobile received abundant support from Tencent. By investing in the PUBG Mobile's esports scene and cooperating with YouTube, Tencent hopes to attract more players in western countries to try the game. However, in an interview with GamesBeat, the global head of PUBG Mobile esports at Tencent also admitted that the western audience of the game's esports events is less than 10% of the total audience in Asia.

PUBG Mobile esports event in North America

PUBG Mobile esports event in North America

The game also faces a huge challenge in India, one of the most populated game markets in the world. On Sept. 2, 2020, the Indian government banned PUBG Mobile for data privacy concerns which dealt a major hit to the game’s overall player base and effectively ended PUBG Mobile esports in the country. Although the game came back to India again in July 2021, it was published by Krafton, the owner of PUBG IP, as a separate entity and shares no direct connections with Tencent.