The “PUBG Mobile” Club Open (PMCO) will have a $2.5 million prize pool when it debuts this year, developer PUBG Corp. and publisher Tencent announced on Friday.
“PUBG Mobile” esports director James Yang made the announcement during a celebration for the battle royale title’s first anniversary.
The PMCO features a Spring and Fall Split. The Spring Split covers 10 regions: South East Asia, India, the Middle East, North America, South America, Europe, Korea, Japan, China and Wildcard. Online qualifiers begin today and end on Mar. 30. More than 35,000 teams have signed up for the competition, PUBG Corp. said. The finals take place in Germany in July.
Tencent and PUBG Corp. will reveal details about the Fall Split at a later date.
Tencent Games general manager of global publishing Vincent Wang said the company is setting 2019 up to be “the year of ‘PUBG Mobile,'” and the PMCO is a big step towards development of an esports ecosystem for the game.
Additionally, Tencent and PUBG Corp. are partnering with Norwegian DJ Alan Walker on a first anniversary theme song for “PUBG Mobile” called “On My Way.” Walker performed the track live for the first time during the game’s birthday bash this week at YouTube Space in New York. It’s now available on various streaming and video services.
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To celebrate the song’s release, PUBG Corp. made an Alan Walker-themed outfit for player character avatars in-game. Players can also hear “On My Way” while they’re waiting in the “PUBG Mobile” lobby or while driving a car during a match.
“PUBG Mobile” is now the global leader in mobile games for monthly active users, Tencent and PUBG Corp. said. It has more than 200 million downloads and reportedly brought in more money in January than its largest competitor, Epic Games’ “Fortnite.” “PUBG” players reportedly spent an estimated $45.2 million in the App Store and Google Play compared to the estimated $37.9 million “Fortnite” players spent in January on iOS alone. But, it’s important to note those figures don’t include the Android version of “Fortnite,” which is downloadable directly from Epic Games instead of the Google Play Store.
