Tencent’s patriotic PUBG replacement Game for Peace pays off with US$70 million revenue in May

China’s biggest social media and games company, Tencent Holdings, has seen its recent swap strategy pay off as Game for Peace, its newly-launched replacement for PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) Mobile in the China market, brought in an estimated US$70 million in player spending last month.

Combined with the original PUBG mobile title available outside China, the two versions generated an estimated US$146 million in revenue in May from downloads on the iOS App Store and Android’s Google Play, excluding third party Android stores, according to data from Sensor Tower.

That was a 26-fold increase compared to May last year when Tencent’s PUBG Mobile was available in China only as a free-to-play game.

The two versions of PUBG Mobile collectively became the world’s top grossing mobile app, ahead of another Tencent blockbuster, Honour of Kings, which raked in US$125 million in May, according to Sensor Tower.

Tencent declined to comment on its game revenue.

Regulatory delays and a government crackdown on content have blocked Tencent from making money off the mobile version of PUBG, prompting it to close the title in early May and launch Game for Peace, which has similar game play and allows users to automatically migrate their data from PUBG.