Only 9% Of People Chose This Battle Royale Game As Their Favorite

Have you ever wondered which battle royale game is the most popular? This is such a hot genre right now, with games like PlayerUnknownsBattlegrounds (PUBG), Apex Legends, Call of Duty: Warzone, and Fortnite among the titles vying for a top position in people's gaming lineups. Each game has its own personality and quirks, but they're all action-packed games full of scavenging and survival. 

For a long time, it seemed like Fortnite would always reign supreme, based on its huge numbers: Business Insider called it "the biggest game in the world" in 2019. But is that still true? Or have other battle royales taken its place? Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout was a surprise hit when it came out in late July, even dethroning Fortnite briefly as the most-viewed game on Twitch when the beta went live. 

But some gamers might prefer the dynamics and gameplay of other contenders that have eked out a presence in the battle royale space — and there are increasingly more of them. Upcoming titles include one based in the Vampire: The Masquerade universe and Super Mario Bros. 35.

So, SVG conducted a survey of 1,400 people around the world and asked them which battle royale was their favorite. Here are the results.

According to SVG's very scientific survey, Call of Duty: Warzone is the most popular battle royale, gaining 45 percent of the vote. It's far and away the winner: Second-place Apex Legends comes in a whopping 25 percentage points behind with 20 percent of the vote. 

Coming in last? PUBG, considered to be a trailblazer for the modern version of the game, with just 9 percent of the vote. PUBG's single-digit showing is a bit unexpected, considering its wild popularity a few years ago and the fact that developer PUBG Corporation has sold 70 million units as of July 2020.

Fortnite seems to have lost some of its luster and sits in third place with 12 percent of the vote. While Fortnite does seem to have become less popular lately, this low number is also a surprise, as Fortnite took in $1.8 billion in 2019. Then again, the game's troubles with the App Store and Google Play are well-documented and may be cutting into players' access to the game.

It should be noted that people who participated in this survey were given four games to choose between, and about 13 percent chose "Other" instead. Given how many battle royale games there are now, that's one thing that isn't a surprise.

Fans choosing "Other" were invited to list their favorites in the survey, and they definitely had opinions. Minecraft: Hunger Games, Fall Guys, and Hyper Scape each picked up a number of votes, and another game people nominated multiple times was Minecraft: Skywars. A few votes came in here and there for the multiplayer modes in Red Dead Redemption 2 and Grand Theft Auto Online. One person wrote in Call of Duty: Black Ops 4's Blackout, and another added Roblox. A few other outliers were named as well. 

Technically, voters choosing the "Other" category outnumber the fans of both Fortnite and PUBG, but given how many other options were named, it doesn't look like any one title would have beat out last-place PUBG.

And there are always the naysayers, who are there to rag on other games (reveling in the fall of Fortnite, for example) or deride the genre as a whole. One user declared, "Battle Royale is nothing more than a fad that'll eventually bite the dust." Given the fact that some highly anticipated battle royales are on the way, and the current titles still appear to be pretty lucrative, we're not so sure this is true.

Hmm, maybe another poll about the future of battle royales is in order?