New sales numbers suggest PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds hasn’t lost any momentum during the summer months, a period when games sales (and sometimes player counts) tend to decline. The full release might take a few months longer than expected but there should still be plenty of people queueing up for servers when PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds leaves Early Access.
In some ways, it’s starting to feel like the success of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds can’t be overstated. It may not have Minecraft -esque sales figures yet -- and is unlikely to, given its much more mature subject matter -- but the game is already performing well above the average for a new Steam release (~32K as of 2015). Bluehole may have been forced to push the game’s launch window back a few months but it doesn’t seem to be having much impact on game sales.
According to SteamSpy, a third-party site that tracks a variety of Steam-related metrics (like game sales), PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds sold its 5 millionth copy sometime on Wednesday. The data has yet to be corroborated by anyone at Bluehole; however, these milestones tend to be followed by tweets from the game’s creator, Brendan “Playerunknown” Greene. Of course, Greene is currently en route to Atlanta for a Dreamhack appearance -- which he’s billing as fans’ opportunity to tell him to fix his game in person -- this weekend. So it might take a bit longer than usual to acknowledge the milestone.
Sadly, there hasn’t been much else in the way of PUBG news this week. We’re still waiting to learn more about the game’s next monthly update, which will hopefully include the vaulting and climbing systems teased at E3. But all we know (for now) is that the August update should bring the first wave of first-person only servers and new FOV sliders. Maybe we’ll see some of the improved character customization and/or new wardrobe items that have been in development?
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is currently available in Early Access. The game’s full release is expected before the end of the year and an Xbox One port is currently slated for early 2018.
Be sure to check back with Player.One and follow Scott on Twitter for more PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds news in 2017 and however long Bluehole supports PUBG in the years ahead.
