Another Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds milestone has gone whizzing by, and this one is a biggie. Just two months after claiming ten million copies sold—a remarkable achievement by any measure—creative director Brendan Greene said on Twitter that it has now moved past 20 million.
.@PUBATTLEGROUNDS reached an amazing milestone this weekend, passing 20 million copies sold!
I know a lot of you are frustrated by issues w/ the game but the team is working hard to deliver a truly great Battle Royale expierence for everyone. Bear with us, change is coming!
— PLAYERUNKNOWN (@PLAYERUNKNOWN) November 7, 2017
The reference to frustration and change tracks back to last week’s apology “for the inconvenience caused by the cheaters,” and more importantly the promise to do something about it. The developers warned at the time that “our battle against cheaters will not end overnight,” but said that a patch is on the way—it should actually be out later this week.
Cheaters notwithstanding, it’s clear that PUBG’s popularity isn’t waning. Steam reviews are “mixed” (and there are so many of them that the status will likely never change) but moving ten million copies—on top of ten million copies already in the wild—in less than two months is nothing short of astonishing.
Its player counts aren’t diminishing any, either: It hit 2.4 million peak concurrent players today, well over triple that of the former long-time king of the hill, Dota 2, which topped out at 680,000.
Runaway popularity notwithstanding, PUBG still has a way to go before it becomes a great esport. What does it need to do to get there?