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Tencent’s Call of Duty: Mobile racks up 250 million downloads over nine months in challenge to PUBG

  • The US accounted for nearly 45 million downloads of the game, equal to 18 per cent of the total, while US players contributed US$134 million in spending to date
  • Call of Duty: Mobile’s success is another example of Tencent’s global expansion in the gaming sector paying dividends

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Call of Duty: Mobile has amassed almost US$327 million in player spending globally since its launch nine months ago. Photo: Handout
Josh Ye

Tencent Holdings’ Call of Duty: Mobile has racked up 250 million downloads worldwide in under nine months, showing potential to become the most successful game on a mobile platform, according to data from app tracking firm Sensor Tower.

Developed by Tencent’s TiMi Studios under a license from Activision-Blizzard, Call of Duty: Mobile reached the milestone just 265 days after launch even though it remains unavailable in China. To date, the game has amassed almost US$327 million in player spending globally and now exceeds the downloads and revenue earned in the early days of Tencent’s PUBG Mobile, which has held the title of the world’s most profitable mobile game for the past nine months.
Call of Duty: Mobile’s success is another example of Tencent’s global expansion in the gaming sector paying dividends. The Chinese company’s strategy is to partner with international gaming firms such as Activision-Blizzard and PUBG Corp to turn traditional big-ticket console and PC games into mobile titles. The Shenzhen-based company aims to have half of its gaming revenue from overseas markets in the future.

“I think there’s still potential for Tencent and Activision to vastly increase not only the number of [Call of Duty: Mobile] users, but also the average spending across the board,” said Daniel Camilo, business developer at app publishing firm APPTUTTi.

The US accounted for nearly 45 million downloads of the game, equal to 18 per cent of the total, while US players contributed US$134 million in spending to date, equal to 41 per cent of the worldwide total, according to Sensor Tower.

Japan, Brazil and India are the other big markets for the game, with India and Brazil seeing the most downloads outside the US and Japan and Brazil ranking second and third in terms of revenue.

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