Another week, another story of the runaway success of 2017: PUBG, or PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds.
Fresh from – momentarily, at least – toppling Dota 2 from the top of the Steam concurrent charts, you wonder what plaudits are left for Brendan Greene’s multiplayer mayhem.
Well, here’s a new one, and we can stick a whopping great number on it: PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds has sold over 10 million copies. Ten. Million.
https://twitter.com/PLAYERUNKNOWN/status/905083558833860609
To put that in a little context, here’s where that puts PUBG in the list of the best-selling PC video games of all time, according to Wikipedia:
1. Minecraft – 26 million
2. Terraria – 20 million
3. World of Warcraft – 14 million
4. Diablo III – 12 million
5. The Sims – 11.2 million
6. StarCraft – 11 million
7. Garry’s Mod – 10 million
=. RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 – 10 million
=. PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds – 10 million
10. Half-Life 2 – 9.4 million
11. Half-Life – 9.3 million
Well, that’s some pretty stellar company to be in, and based on the upward trajectory, PUBG will leapfrog RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 and Garry’s Mod in no time at all. It’s not likely to run into any real resistance to its inexorable rise until it makes its way up into third position.
Jeez. Just let that sink in for a moment. PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds – a silly battle royale game, that’s based on an ARMA 3 mod, and is still in Early Access – has sold more copies than both Half-Life games. Soon, it will likely have sold more than StarCraft and The Sims.
And before too long, it should topple World of Warcraft. There’s a long way to go between third and second place, so indie darling Terraria and the mighty Minecraft will be safe for a while, but for how long?
PUBG is lurking in the bushes, and it has a really good scope.
