More Users Than MMORPG Genre
PUBG Mobile Surpasses 20 Million Cumulative Subscribers
Fast Gameplay Enables Maintaining Offline Friendships
Benefiting from Social Distancing... New Releases Continue
[Asia Economy Reporter Jin-gyu Lee] Amid the increase in game usage due to the impact of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), it has been found that the battle royale genre benefited more than the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) genre. This is because the rise in battle royale users was greater than that of MMORPG users based on domestic game access data before and after the COVID-19 outbreak. Experts analyzed that unlike the long-term engagement required by MMORPGs, the faster gameplay of battle royale games attracted more new gamers.
◆ Battle Royale is the top beneficiary game genre of COVID-19 = On the 27th, Asia Economy examined the domestic mobile access trends of battle royale and MMORPG genre games before and after COVID-19 through IGAWorks, revealing that the battle royale representative game PUBG showed the largest increase. IGAWorks is a service that aggregates mobile user data. According to the data, PUBG’s domestic monthly active users (MAU) increased by about 36% (515,999 users), from 1,413,551 in November last year before the COVID-19 outbreak to 1,929,550 last month during the prolonged pandemic. PUBG Mobile, developed by Krafton and released in May 2018, is a representative game of the battle royale genre. Although PUBG Mobile maintained around 2 million monthly users immediately after its release, its momentum slowed over time. However, with the emergence of new demand due to COVID-19, it succeeded in retaining existing users as well as attracting new ones. Thanks to this, the cumulative number of domestic subscribers exceeded 20 million by April.
On the other hand, MMORPG genre games saw a gradual decline in users after the COVID-19 outbreak. NCSoft’s 'Lineage 2M', launched in November last year, recorded 775,524 monthly users in its first month but dropped to 235,152 last month. Similarly, Nexon’s 'V4', released in the same month, decreased from 722,182 users in its first month to 184,958 last month. An industry insider explained, "Based on domestic mobile user data, the battle royale genre appears to have benefited the most from COVID-19."
◆ Continuous releases of battle royale genre games = The reasons for battle royale’s benefit from COVID-19 include its fast-paced gameplay and the ability to maintain offline friendships through gaming. As social distancing prolonged due to COVID-19 concerns earlier this year, users flocked to battle royale games that allowed them to build camaraderie with offline colleagues. Lee Jang-ju, director of the Irak Digital Culture Research Institute, said, "Unlike MMORPGs that require a lot of time investment, battle royale games can be easily enjoyed in a short time. MMORPGs form new relationships online, but battle royale games are good for playing with offline friends, which made them beneficiaries of social distancing."
Meanwhile, the battle royale genre, which had relatively fewer games compared to MMORPGs, is expected to face increasing competition. While PUBG leads the market, Pearl Abyss recently launched the battle royale PC game 'Shadow Arena', and Smilegate plans to release 'Crossfire Zero', a battle royale PC game using the intellectual property (IP) of 'Crossfire', within this year. An industry insider noted, "The user base of battle royale games, which used to be mainly young people in their teens and twenties, is expanding to middle-aged and older generations."
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