It sounds like PUBG has done pretty well for itself since going free-to-play, apparently bringing in roughly 80,000 news users a day.
More and more live service games are going free-to-play, with PUBG having done so in January of this year, and Fall Guys having done the same in June. A big part of that is likely to bring in more players, especially because all of the big, successful live service titles like Apex Legends and Destiny 2 are free-to-play. And according to developer Krafton’s preliminary earnings report for the first half of 2022, PUBG going free to play has certainly helped.
The report states that since going free-to-play in January, PUBG “has seen a steady inflow of more than 80,000 new users per day.” To give you an idea of how many new players that is, PUBG went free-to-play 214 days ago, meaning over 17 million players have signed-up to play the game.
That’s obviously a huge amount of players, and it’s more than likely that most of them haven’t stuck around as regular players. But whether or not all of those users are sticking around or not likely doesn’t matter, as the report also states that “average revenue per user increased more than 20%” quarter on quarter.
PUBG Mobile continues to do well as well, with it currently ranking “second in sales among global mobile games.”
The report briefly touched on another of its projects which is based on the Korean fantasy series The Bird That Drinks Tears. Not much is known about the project at this point in time, but Krafton has begun actively development on it, and is currently hiring for it.
The adaptations of The Bird That Drinks Tears won’t just be limited to a game, as various mediums are planned, as Krafton believes that the series’ lore and world is full of potential.