'Fall Guys' Going Mobile In China Thanks To Bilibili

After launching in early August, the battle royale “Fall Guys” has quickly become one of the hottest video games.

Instead of gamers shooting at each other, “Fall Guys” centers around 60 jelly bean-style players competing in mini-games, with contestants eliminated over time until one gets the golden crown.

What You Need to Know: “Fall Guys” is only available for PlayStation 4 and PC. Whether the game will hit the Xbox or Nintendo Switch remains a mystery.

Fans of the game did get a surprise announcement that a mobile version of the game will be coming to China soon thanks to an exclusive partnership with Bilibili Inc. BILI.

The co-founder of Mediatronic Limited, the British company behind "Fall Guys," told Digital Trends that the company “can confirm Bilibili have secured publishing rights to a mobile version in China.”

The mobile version of the game is titled “Jelly Bean: The Ultimate Knockout.” 

Bilibili opened pre-registration on Monday, and130,000 users have expressed interest in the game.

Why It’s Important: Mobile games are a huge revenue driver for Bilibil. The company has diversified into livestreaming, esports and advertising, but still receives the majority of its revenue from mobile games.

In the first quarter, Bilibili saw overall revenue increase 69% to $327 million. The mobile games segment had growth of 32% to $162.5 million.

Monthly active users grew 70% to 172.4 million. Mobile monthly users grew 77% to 156.4 million.

Bilibili is the publisher of “Fate/Order,” which has been one of the world’s most successful mobile games. This title, which comes from partner and part owner Sony Corporation SNE led the game sections of apps for 2019.

The game also ranked fifth on a list of the top-growing games for the decade of 2010 to 2019. The game has made over $4 billion for Sony and Bilibili and has more than 11 million downloads.

“Fall Guys” has seen impressive numbers on Twitch, the game streaming platform owned by Amazon.com AMZN.

The game ranks third in average viewers over the last week with 163,866. The game trails only Twitch’s popular "Just Chatting" feature and “League of Legends.” Fall Guys has even seen more viewers watch gameplay than popular battle royale “Fortnite.”

What’s Next: According to Reuters, Bilibili has considered a secondary Hong Kong listing.

Bilibi could seek to sell 5%-10% of the company, Reuters reported. This offering wouldn’t come until next year, as the city’s listing rules include two years of financial records and good regulatory compliance on another qualifying exchange.

The "Fall Guys" momentum will probably not let up, as a second season is in the works.

The company announced that a sneak peak of season two will be aired during the opening night of Gamescom on Aug. 27.

As long as this game stays hot, Bilibili looks to have secured a huge property for its mobile games lineup in China.

Photo courtesy of Mediatronic.