PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds has risen to rapid popularity since its Early Access launch, but its chief competitor H1Z1: King of the Kill maintains a steady player count in spite of the apparently overwhelming competition. Is there enough room for two battle royale shooters at the top?
PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds has recently passed the 4 million sales post with confidence to spare, and you will see the game showered with praise and free exposure left and right - but what of its chief competitor, H1Z1: King of the Kill?
Considering its massive popularity, one would assume that players are flocking to the superior game en masse, but this doesn't seem to be the case if Steam Charts is anything to go by.
SteamCharts
During PUBG's rapid rise, H1Z1 concurrent user numbers have remained relatively steady, even making small gains from time to time. Admittedly, the game's progress has been slowed and clearly overshadowed by PUBG's success, but H1Z1 doesn't look like it's going to go away anytime soon.
SteamCharts
PUBG clearly boasts higher player counts but it is somewhat unclear why H1Z1 doesn't seem to be suffering too greatly for it.
Despite being both occupying a space in the freshly minted battle royale shooter genre, there seems to be enough of a difference, whether its in actual gameplay, hardware requirements, or plain pricing, between the two games which is allowing H1Z1 to maintain its user base.
It is worth keeping in mind that H1Z1 had quite a head start on its main competitor in terms of launch date, and the question if there are two spots near the top of the hill might only get resolved once both games leave Early Access.
