PUBG: Battlegrounds is earning a lot more money after going free-to-play

PUBG: Battlegrounds, the Pc and console model of the battle royale shooter collection, is making a good deal of dollars subsequent its change to absolutely free-to-engage in in January, as uncovered by developer Krafton’s latest earnings report printed Friday.

According to the report, on Computer, sales have been up 61 per cent calendar year above calendar year to $82.3 million. On console, the gross sales soar was even bigger, increasing 124 {cf07cd047201b183b19c0b335dbd7d35a498f84568531c8abe8643bd3ccfd494} from the former quarter and 274 p.c calendar year over yr, although Krafton did not set a greenback determine driving those people will increase. The video game also saw a “nearly tripled” improve in typical monthly active customers from Q4 2021.

PUBG: Battlegrounds was initially a compensated title when it launched on Steam in early obtain in 2017, but the outsized economic success of absolutely free-to-play battle royale shooters like Fortnite, Simply call of Responsibility: Warzone, and Apex Legends proved that the totally free design can be quite worthwhile. To give you an strategy of just how profitable, EA mentioned this 7 days that Apex Legends, a game that has been out for a very little about three many years, has surpassed $2 billion in lifetime net bookings. And Epic raised $144 million for Ukraine relief from just two months of Fortnite proceeds.

So for Krafton, switching PUBG: Battlegrounds to cost-free-to-engage in was probably a really effortless final decision. And the level of popularity of PUBG: Cellular (which is also free of charge-to-play) in all probability served Krafton says that game, which has been downloaded additional than 1 billion occasions as of March 2021, earned $307.1 million in earnings in the initially quarter of 2022, a determine that was up 5 {cf07cd047201b183b19c0b335dbd7d35a498f84568531c8abe8643bd3ccfd494} 12 months around year.