It’s amazing to look at how far and how fast PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds has progressed and sold. The game only launched last year, and it hasn’t even reached its 1-year anniversary yet. However, in less than a year, it took the world by storm in numerous ways. It went from “just another” Steam Early Access title to one of the most successful video games of all time, even getting nominated for Game of the Year despite it not being fully released at the time. And now, Gabe Newell has revealed another honor for the title.
Newell was doing a news conference on Valve’s next game, Artifact, and he gave a small update on how PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds was doing on Steam (to which it has the only full version of the game currently):
“So PUBG can come out of pretty much nowhere and become the third largest selling game on Steam’s history. Their gross revenue over all-time is already number three in fairly short order.”
If you can’t tell? Newell was impressed by PUBG, and he should be. A game coming out of nowhere to become the 3rd best-selling title of all time on Steam? In less than a year? That’s more than impressive, that’s shocking. And nearly unheard of. What’s more, it’s very possible it could keep climbing the charts, its just a matter of player intent and desire.
Newell also noted that one of the reasons PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds succeeded so much on Steam was because there was a giant “hole” to be filled, a hole left behind since the release of Dota 2. Players wanted a new multiplayer experience that was fresh and real, and PUBG was apparently that.
However, despite this good news, it hasn’t been an easy couple of weeks for PUBG. Its concurrent player base is falling, many gamers have stopped playing because of the current epidemic of cheating, and it’s been getting beat in many categories by Fortnite, which it once dominated.
But still, there is hope for a comeback, and this honor is not to be taken away.
