PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds has received some new high honors.
The popular battle royale was given the Steam Game of the Year Award for 2018, besting stiff competition from Monster Hunter World, Kingdom Come: Deliverance, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, and Hitman 2. The award was determined by fan vote.
Initially released in December 2017, PUBG exploded in popularity the following year. By March, Valve founder Gabe Newell told PC Gamer that it was the third highest grossing game in Steam history. From there, PUBG expanded across multiple platforms with ports dropping on the Xbox One and Playstation 4 as sales totaled over 50 million units.
Additionally, the free-to-play mobile version of the game has tallied over 200 million downloads as of December 2018. That overwhelming success across multiple platforms added up to PUBG being one of the biggest commercial success stories of 2018 and one of the most popular games of all time.
In addition to its own success, PUBG is largely credited with pushing the battle royale genre into the mainstream and introducing many of its most iconic gameplay features. Its influence can be felt even among current such rivals as Fortnite and Apex Legends.
The game has suffered a steady decline in player activity since its spring 2018 peak, but it still maintains steady six-figure active player counts. That fact, coupled with substantial investment going into its professional scene, means that PUBG will likely stick around for a good while yet.
In addition to PUBG winning Game of the Year, a number of other notable esports titles were honored in the Steam Awards. Rocket League took top honors in the “Most Fun with a Machine” category, while Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege won the “Better with Friends” award for great multiplayer.
The full list of Steam Awards nominees and winners can be found on the event’s official website.
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