Emerging Markets Hit
Garena’s battle royale game Free Fire surpasses $1 billion of lifetime revenue
Ranked up the achievement in two years
A New Chapter
Fortnite’s “The End” event viewed by seven million concurrents
New records set across Twitch and Twitter
From Idle To Active
How Futureplay Games successfully made battle royale snack-sized for mobile
“It’s not that healthy of a genre if you wanted to enter it now as a new developer..."
Bullseye
PUBG Mobile shoots through $1 billion of lifetime sales
Explosive growth in 2019
Winner Winner
Sensor Tower: PUBG Mobile is making more money than Fortnite
July saw sales increase by 748 per cent year-on-year
Mobile Here
EA confirms Apex Legends is on track for mobile
Battle royale on course to arrive in China too
Peacekeepers
Tencent’s battle royale hit Game for Peace could reach $1bn in first year
Niko Partners claims high sales for recent release; speculates on a partnership with Nintendo to release mobile games in China
Stats Royale
PUBG Mobile racks up 50 million daily active users outside of China
Surpasses 400m downloads
Lineage Royale
Netmarble gives MMORPG Lineage 2 Revolution the battle royale treatment
Up to 25 players can compete to be the last person standing
Killer Combo
Tencent's Game for Peace helped PUBG Mobile more than double sales to $146m in May
Sales increased 126 per cent from April
Snap Royale
Zynga launches Snapchat exclusive game Tiny Royale
Battle royale title is the publisher's first release on the Snap Games platform
Let’s Do This
Activision gives Call of Duty: Mobile the battle royale treatment
Publisher working in collaboration with Tencent on the title
Brazil Tops List
Battle royale Garena Free Fire generated $90 million in Q1 2019
73 million new players have downloaded the battle royale title
Winner Winner
Battle royale games have surpassed $2 billion on mobile
NetEase’s Knives Out leads the way
Peace
Tencent’s "peaceful" PUBG clone Game for Peace earned over $14 million in three days
Game for Peace is already outperforming PUBG Mobile internationally
Legendary
Apex Legends is pinging a mobile port
EA’s Q4 results suggest Respawn’s battle royale is heading to smartphones and China
Game For Peace?
Tencent shuts down PUBG Mobile in China
Replaces with new, similar battle royale title Game for Peace that has received government approval
Overtime
Fortnite devs speak out about constant crunch
"The company gives us unlimited time off, but it’s almost impossible to take the time. If I take time off, the workload falls on other people, and no one wants to be that guy"
Cash Royale
Mobile picks up $65m of PUBG Corp's $920m sales in 2018
Mobile likely low due to Chinese approval freeze
Not Fortnite
NetEase renames FortCraft to BuildTopia as it bags one million pre-registrations
Battle royale copycat edges closer to launch
Redundancies
13 jobs lost at NantG Mobile as Z1 Battle Royale development returns to Daybreak
Unclear if NantG-developed mobile editions are still in the works
Critical Moment
How Critical Force's new CEO is fending off the battle royale threat
“After the dust had settled we managed to maintain a stable player base and eventually recovered to our normal DAU numbers"
Better Together
Why NetEase is shooting up battle royale with stylish, team-based title Disorder
Another twist
Legal
PUBG Corp and NetEase settle the battle royale cloning dispute
Two rival battle royale giants choose to settle the PUBG / Knives Out cloning dispute peacefully
Licensing Royale
NetEase gets the jump on Fortnite and Tencent as FortCraft is approved for China launch
95 games receive licence for release
Revenue Dropping Boys
Fortnite revenue declines 48% month-on-month in January
Peak month in december though
Where We Dancing Boys?
Fortnite’s DJ Marshmello concert surpasses game’s concurrent record with 10.7m players
Tilted Towers was rocking
We're Serious
Nintendo reveals Tetris battle royale game for Nintendo Switch
...what?
Epic Win
Fortnite surpasses $500 million for iOS in less than a year
Game took 326 days to hit the milestone
Clash Of The Titans
Apex Legends battle royale could get mobile cross-play
One million players in eight hours
Sharp
Knives Out a big battle royale winner for NetEase in 2018 with $465m revenue
Knives Out benefited from Japanese fame and being monetisable in China
Paradise Palms
Fortnite now has 200 million players
Rise of 60 per cent in the last five months
Chill
$1 million is on the line in Fortnite’s Winter Royale Online Tournament
Star players will be chosen to take part in the Fortnite World Cup in 2019
Winner Winner
PUBG Mobile has scored over 100m downloads on Google Play
Tencent's mobile battle royale reaches Android milestone two months after hitting it across platforms
Cutting Out A Niche
NetEase’s PUBG-like Knives Out pulls in over $370 million
97 per cent of that figure comes from China and Japan
Open Sesame
Fortnite Android beta now open
Title has already grossed more than $60 million, according to Sensor Tower estimates
Support A Creator
Fortnite's 'support-a-creator' initiative lets players back their favourite influencers
The event allows players to support their favourite creators when making in-game purchases
Cash Royale
Fortnite iOS revenue catapults to $300 million faster than Clash Royale
But slower than Niantic’s Pokemon Go, which only took 113 days
Sales Out
NetEase’s PUBG-like Rules of Survival bags $75 million
Another battle royale success for the publisher alongside Knives Out
Epic
Fortnite lands on 78.3m player count for August
Epic also admitted that this player figure revealed weaknesses in performance and spectating
Divorce Royale
Report: Fortnite to blame in over 200 UK divorces this year
"It is no surprise to us that more and more people are having relationship problems because of our digital addictions"
Monetisation Blow
China's regulatory roadblocks stop most downloaded game PUBG Mobile from making money
Despite 100 million downloads and 50 million active users, there are no IAPs
Come Together
NantWorks invests in H1Z1 developer Daybreak and forms new publishing division
Mobile versions of H1Z1 coming
Fort-not
Google Play now warning Fortnite fans that the game isn’t on its Android store
Despite best efforts, clones are likely to flood the Google Play store
Fortnite Android
Fortnite Android rolls out exclusively on Samsung Galaxy devices first today
Heading to other Android devices over the next few days
Salty Springs
Epic CEO Tim Sweeney labels Google Play 30% revenue share “disproportionate” as Fortnite bypasses Android store
Developer goes direct to consumer in bold move
Paradise Palms
Fortnite mobile clears 100 million downloads and $160m revenue
Reached milestone
Chicken Fund
PUBG Mobile hits $30m in revenue in four months
The battle royale title saw revenues trip upon the introduction of the royale pass
Two Sweet
Fortnite Mobile bagging up to $2m a day
Revenues have received a shot in the arm following the launch of season five
Epic
Fortnite boom propels Epic Games to $8.5bn valuation
The battle royales success has also made Epic Games’ founder Tim Sweeney a billionaire