PUBG: Battlegrounds has been one of the most successful battle royales ever since its release in 2017. And while its time as the top battle royale in the world was usurped by Fortnite relatively quickly, PUBG has maintained its success through the years. Time erodes all games' success, though, and earlier this year PUBG made the shift to free-to-play to compete in the market in a new way. According to the latest reporting from Krafton, PUBG's free-to-play transition has proven a very lucrative choice.
Krafton, the publisher of PUBG: Battlegrounds, recently issued a financial report for the first half of 2022. The report claimed $729.5 million in revenue for these six months, a 2.86% increase year-over-year, but $338.4 million in net profit which is a 30.97% increase year-over-year. Admittedly, well more than half of that came from Krafton's mobile business, which includes PUBG Mobile. However, PUBG: Battlegrounds' free-to-play launch has also led to improved financials as well.
According to the report, average revenue per user increased more than 20% quarter-over-quarter following the launch of PUBG: Battlegrounds as a free-to-play game. If that wasn't impressive enough, Krafton also says that new player accounts has increased at a rate of more than 80,000 new users a day. So not only are more players making PUBG: Battlegrounds accounts since the free-to-play launch, but Krafton is making more money per user, too.
What's also called attention to is where PUBG: Battlegrounds is drawing in its new audience. 94% of PUBG's revenue during Q2 2022 came from countries outside of South Korea, where the game is developed and published. Those markets include, naturally, the United States. If the goal was to expand PUBG's audience in major video game markets, it appears that Krafton has certainly achieved that.
Some might say that Krafton's success with the free-to-play launch of PUBG: Battlegrounds isn't surprising. It's a proven success, after all, as it's been available as a premium game since 2017. However, many PUBG players believed that the game might have been on its way out. The market is saturated and there are always new alternative battle royales to try out. The free-to-play launch changed a lot of minds, though. PUBG is still exciting to many game players across the world.
Now all Krafton and the developers of PUBG have to do is continue to make PUBG: Battlegrounds a game worth revisiting day by day. More battle passes, more content updates, and everything else one would expect from a live service free-to-play game can be expected, so there is still potential for PUBG to become the top battle royale in the world again.
PUBG: Battlegrounds is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and mobile devices.