Tencent has announced that PUBG Mobile Club Open 2020 will have a prize pool of $5 million, which is double the amount they gave away for PMCO 2019. Granted, this event is splint into spring and fall seasons, but other big games don’t even give out this much money for single events.
Games like Call of Duty and Halo have only given out $2 and $2.5 million respectively as their highest prize pool amounts. There are other big games like Dota 2 and Fortnite that are giving out $30 million for a single esports event, but $5 million for a mobile game is still an insane amount. Even the Overwatch League prize pool this last year was only $3.5 million.
It makes sense for Tencent to up the ante for next year though. PUBG Mobile Club Open 2019 Fall Split Global Finals at the Putra World Trade Center in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, alone was quite successful, but the event as a whole had more than 530 million total views, which is up 11% from last year. It also had 57 million watch hours, which was 15% more. The craziest part is both of these stats aren’t including China’s viewership numbers. Having those would make their watch numbers even more insane.
In the words of James Yang, Director of PUBG Mobile Global Esports for Tencent Games:
“The success of PMCO 2019 with millions of concurrent viewers is one of the testaments to the strength of PUBG Mobile’s community and the true potential and broad appeal for mobile esports.”
Tencent knows it has a money-maker on its hands. They aren’t the only one to notice, however, because they got nominated for Esports Game of the Year in Golden Joystick Awards 2019. It seems the popularity of the mobile version of PUBG is starting to surpass the original, so it will be interesting to see what the future has instore for this thriving mobile game.
Gaming Instincts is dedicated to bringing its readers all the latest and greatest news, reviews, guides, and updates for all of their favorite titles and more. Be sure to follow Gaming Instincts on Facebook and Twitter for more gaming news!
