The worldwide sensation that is PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds just won't stop, recently setting a new record for having the most concurrent players online thanks to 2 million people. The previous record holder was Dota 2, which set its record of 1.29 million concurrent players in March 2016. At the time of this new milestone, Dota 2 had some 600,000 concurrent players online with Counter-Strike: Global Offensive hot on its tail with around 500,000 players, which isn't bad for PUBG considering the longtime following that the aforementioned games have.
Fans of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds shouldn't celebrate too hard though as other battle royale games are slowly gaining traction, with Fortnite Battle Royale notably boasting a population of 10 million players. After all, you can't compete with free games, especially if it's a free game from a reasonably renowned developer, and as more and more developers catch wind of PUBG's success, you can bet that there is going to be stiff competition in the future until the market is flooded and people move onto the next big thing. That being said, PUBG still offers a unique experience that will be hard to replicate, on top of being a very popular game for people to watch on YouTube and Twitch and the like.
In any case, the success of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds in the future lies entirely upon its developer's actions as more and more games incorporate new kinds of microtransactions that push the boundaries of what we find acceptable. This is especially notable given that the developer has said there will be a skin based loot-crate economy post-launch. All eyes are definitely on PUBG to determine the fate of the growing battle royale genre now, especially when it's only a matter of time before the next big thing comes along and steals everyone's attention.
Additionally, the title has almost certainly crossed 15m total units sold according to Steam Spy, which by its most recent information puts it at over 16m +/- 100k. Just last month we were reporting that PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds had sold 10m, meaning it has sold about 5m units over the past month.
