For the first time ever, the average PUBG player count on PC has seen a decline. Yep, this game, which everyone and their mothers seem to be playing, actually experienced a dip in the average number of players online.
According to Steam Charts, the average amount of players during the last 30 days dipped by over 36,000.
Now, before we go announcing the death of the battle royale king, let’s first remember that there are still, on average, over 1.5 million players online playing PUBG. The most recent 24-hour peak hit 2.7 million. So no, the game is not in any trouble.
There’s a few possible reasons for the decrease. The first is the new anti-cheat patch, which blocks players who are using suspicious programs from accessing the game. It’s also possible that the obscene number of bans carried out in January, which amounted to over 1 million, had an impact on the player count.
As noted by PCGamesN, the upcoming Tencent-published version of the game, which is tailored towards the Asian market, may have also moved players away from global version of PUBG. Market analyst Daniel Ahmad says that over 9 million players have signed up for the Tencent version.
Then there’s Fortnite, which has become PUBG‘s main competitor. Supported across PC, Xbox One, and PS4, Fortnite is attracting players on all major platforms. (Side note: I wonder how well it would run on the Nintendo Switch… Better than PUBG, that’s for sure!)
Despite all this, I don’t think Bluehole has to worry. Sure, its success may have slowed down a little, but it is still the heavyweight champion, and it’s going to take some serious beating in order to be knocked down.
