The shooter PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) has lost feathers since January. On Steam, it is said to have lost almost half of its peak player count. But the crisis is hitting PUBG at an excellent level. Is Fortnite really to blame, as many believe?
50% of the player peak gone since January: As PcGamesN reports, PUBG has had to lose quite a bit. The 24-hour peak has halved compared to January 2018. The top number was still at 3,236,027 people playing PUBG on Steam within 24 hours in mid-January. Today, the peak value would be at 1,560,595. They refer to the Steam Charts numbers. Even if we do not take the peak player count, but the average number of players, about a third is still missing compared to January.
Crisis at a mega-high level: Even with these numbers, PUBG is only in crisis compared to its own peak. PUBG still has far more players on Steam than Counter Strike: Global Offensive or Dota 2.
PUBG suing Fortnite – is the villain sitting there?
2017 went only up, 2018 almost only down: But when you look at the numbers of PUBG, a clear downward trend is visible. In 2017 and even in January 2018, PUBG only went up, sometimes with huge jumps, but PUBG has been continuously losing players on Steam since February 2018. What is the reason for this?
Fortnite to blame? Not so fast: The obvious solution for many is to blame Fortnite for PUBG’s decline. After all, the free alternative has skyrocketed in recent months. And PUBG has even sued Fortnite. It makes sense to suspect a rivalry. However, when you look at the comments from users, they point in a different direction. Moreover, Fortnite is more of a phenomenon on the consoles PS4 and Xbox One. According to the latest data from Superdata, Fortnite does earn a lot of money on PC, but not nearly as much as on PS4 and Xbox One.
PUBG is already steering against
Homemade problems: Many players continue to complain about lags and bugs in PUBG. Cheating is also a massive issue in the community. PUBG wants to specifically address these three topics, cheats, bugs and server performance, as the guiding themes in the development of the coming months. PUBG has even admitted to having errors here.
Is the problem in China? Ring of Elysium
China’s growth is stuttering: There is also another theory as to why PUBG is not growing as rapidly as before. The causes can be found in China. Here “Steam Spy” hinted at in January 2018 (via Twitter) that Chinese players hesitate to buy the international version of PUBG for expensive money. They prefer to speculate on a free PUBG version from Chinese giant Tencent.
Competition is also approaching, but not Fortnite: The quirky Fortnite with its comic look is not the right alternative for many PUBG veterans. However, the game “Ring of Elysium” – which is seen in reddit threads as the “better PUBG”. This is exactly the free alternative to PUBG that was talked about five months ago. Here began the decline for PUBG – although at a damn high level.
