‘PUBG Mobile’ Revenue Surpasses ‘Fortnite’ for First Time on iOS Platform

By Brittany Vincent

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – “PUBG Mobile” is still going strong. On the week of Nov. 19, the smartphone iteration of the popular battle royale game saw a 166 percent jump in revenue, which allowed it to surpass “” for the first time on .

According to Sensor Tower ‘s Store Intelligence data, estimated worldwide player spending across both the App Store and Google Play was up 2.7x last week in comparison to the past seven days. This represented 166 percent boost from just $4.5 million to an estimated $12 million for the version of the battle royale title.

Compared to “Fortnite,” “” grossed 43 percent more on iOS devices during the same span of time. This was the first time since “PUBG Mobile” began monetizing its content in April 2018 that it was able to overtake “Fortnite” in player spending. By the end of the week, “PUBG Mobile” was averaging an estimated $1.7 million each day in revenue, while “Fortnite” was earning around $1.2 million per day on iOS devices.

Sensor Tower notes that “PUBG Mobile” grossed only 20 percent less than “Fortnite” during that week overall and was able to surpass it in earnings on two of the seven days, Nov. 21 and Nov. 22.

It remains to be seen whether this trend will continue, as there isn’t any obvious driving force behind the sudden boost in revenue. Both games are free to download and only supported by microtransactions, while “PUBG” does charge an entry fee for PC players. Those wishing to play the Xbox One version can do so for free via Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass subscription. “Fortnite” is free on all platforms.