Fortnite competitor PUBG Mobile wins Best Game of 2018 on Google Play

• “PUBG Mobile” has been named Google Play’s Best Game of 2018 and Fan Favorite Game of 2018.
• “PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds” is a battle-royale shooter and helped inspire “Fortnite: Battle Royale” and the Blackout mode in “Call of Duty: Black Ops 4.”
• “PUBG Mobile” is free on Google Play, while the versions on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC are $29.99.

Google Play has released its Best of 2018 list, and battle-royale shooter “PUBG Mobile” tops the list as both Best Game and Fan Favorite Game.

As the name suggests, “PUBG Mobile” is the mobile version of “PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds,” the PC game that’s largely credited with inspiring the battle royale genre leading to “Fortnite: Battle Royale” and copycat game modes in “Call of Duty: Black Ops 4” and “Battlefield V.”

Hundreds of millions of players around the world are playing battle royale games on video game consoles and smartphone alike. It helps that the two biggest games in the genre, “PUBG” and “Fortnite,” are free on mobile devices. Research firm SensorTower reports that “PUBG Mobile” has been downloaded more than 240 million times and has earned more than $113 million through microtransactions.

“PUBG Mobile” and the console and PC versions of “PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds” have separate player bases, but the games function the same. “PUBG” throws 100 players onto an island with scattered resources. Once the game starts, they need to find weapons and items to defend themselves with as the safe areas of the island begin to shrink. The last player or team surviving at the end of the round is the winner.

Read more:It looks like the smash-hit game that paved the way for ‘Fortnite: Battle Royale’ is finally coming to PlayStation 4

While “Fortnite” is more popular than “PUBG” overall, the game is not downloadable in the Google Play Store — Android users must instead install the game directly from the Fornite website — clearing the way for “PUBG Mobile” to dominate on Android devices and Google Play download rankings. “Fortnite” is also unavailable in China, the world’s largest video game market, due to the Chinese government’s ongoing freeze on new game releases.

Both the PC version of “PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds” and “PUBG Mobile” were published in China by Tencent prior to the government’s call for increased video game regulation. The game has seen tens of millions of downloads in China but Tencent is still not allowed to monetize “PUBG Mobile” in China with in-game purchases.

While…