It seems that Bluehole’s PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is growing even larger. A report from Chinese website Jiemian News (via Yicai Global), an “informed source” has revealed that Chinese tech giant Tencent is investing in Bluehole. Following a rejected acquisition bid, Tencent had apparently invested an unrevealed amount in the company.
Tencent is fairly well known for not only owning Riot Games, developer of popular MOBA League of Legends, but also for having Activision Blizzard shares. This move seems to indicate a growing investment in eSports, especially considering how well League of Legends and its own mobile MOBA Honour of Kings (which launched in Europe recently as Arena of Valour) are both doing.
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, meanwhile, is the most played non-Valve game on Steam having accumulated more than 500,000 concurrent players at one point. Despite being in Early Access, the game has managed to sell over 4 million copies in the meanwhile and is making forays into competitive spheres as well. It will also releases on the Xbox One and Xbox One X by 2017 end via the Game Preview Program.