BLACKPINK
Name a more iconic duo than BLACKPINK and…PUBG?
It’s not actually as crazy as it sounds, as the Korean musical force and the world-dominating battle royale game have joined forces multiple times over the course of the past year. This has culminated in what some may even consider a “metaverse moment” today, the release of a CG BLACKPINK music video for their new song, Ready for Love. It takes place in a modified version of PUBG Mobile using some imagery from the game, with the girls in stylized avatar form.
Again, this is not as random as it sounds, given the length of the collaboration to date. BLACKPINK actually got PUBG items back in August 2021, which included bundles from each of the girls and also things like BLACKPINK gun skins and such, and the collab seems to have been in the works well before that, back in fall 2020.
Well, that must have really worked out well, because now things have escalated. Fortnite may have gotten Ariana Grande and Travis Scott to perform, but PUBG Mobile is currently in the middle of a metaverse-ish BLACKPINK concert series where players can log in on specific dates to view virtual performances from the group in-game. It’s how the new track Ready for Love was debuted in the first place last week.
And then came this music video, which is titled straight up “BLACKPINK X PUBG MOBILE - ‘Ready For Love’ M/V” and is heavily based on the game, albeit the girls don’t end up shooting anyone over the course of the video. Just dancing, and virtual Lisa gets to ride a virtual motorcycle. The crossover seems to be well-received, already at 8 million views, #20 in trending this morning, with a solid 1.8 million likes to 43K dislikes ratio. Literally all the top comments are in languages I do not speak, and in a way, one thing PUBG and BLACKPINK do have in common are very, very global fanbases.
BLACKPINK
These crossover deals are potentially very lucrative for everyone involved. While we don’t have any revenue or earnings data on the history of BLACKPINK and PUBG here, it’s reported that Travis Scott earned around $20 million for his Fortnite collaboration, which included just a single, pre-rendered performance in-game, and the sale of skins and emotes. It seems very likely that the BLACKPINK collab is probably making everyone involved pretty rich. Well, more rich.
Fortnite, meanwhile, has slowed down in terms of its big musical performances. Its last major one was Ariana Grande’s “Rift Tour,” which was almost a year ago in August 2021. Reportedly the pandemic delayed some plans, and rumors have suggested a previously planned Lady Gaga concert may indeed still happen someday. I also suspect Fortnite may be trying to recruit Billie Eilish for a show, given what a big fan Fortnite chief Donald Mustard is of the singer, but we’ll see. Nothing announced out of that camp for a while, so head to PUBG to see BLACKPINK instead. There’s one more shot to see the performance coming July 29-31.
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