PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds
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PUBG Mobile reportedly at center of brutal murder case in India
Steven Rondina
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds may be at the center of a gruesome murder case. According to a number of reports, a father was murdered by his son in Karnataka, India over a dispute regarding PUBG Mobile. Details regarding the case differ based on the reporting outlet, with information including the cause of the dispute, the name, the age of the alleged perpetrator, and the murder weapon all varying. The common denominator throughout …
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Chinese PUBG pro players found guilty of cheating at live event
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
A few Chinese Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds pro players have been caught cheating during the PUBG Champions League 2019. According to a Weibo post published by the PCL Competition Organizing Committee on September 4, as well as translations posted by the head of Liquipedia’s PUBG editor team on Twitter, six players have violated PCL’s rules by obtaining in-game information outside of the game, using resources available to spectators in the competition’s arena. …
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X-Quest F win Peacekeeper Elite Global Invitational in Game for Peace
Olivia Richman
X-Quest F are the Peacekeeper Elite Global Invitational champions. Held in Shanghai, the PEGI was the first ever Game for Peace tournament. The Chinese PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds mobile remake has become the country’s only version of PUBG, thanks to their growing list of restrictions for the video game industry. This includes no blood or use of the word “death.” While China’s strict video game laws have received criticism from the international community, …
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PUBG player breaks Twitch record for most hours streamed in a month
Olivia Richman
“GG, dude.” Those were the infamous words of Twitch streamer Jackson “JayBigs” Bigsley, who recently broke the platform’s record for most hours streamed in a single month. With a countdown displayed on screen, JayBigs popped champagne and said “GG” in celebration as the clock hit 569 hours. JayBigs spent the majority of August playing PlayerUnknown’s Battleground. That was also his game of choice during his record-breaking stream. The momentous moment …
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PUBG Season 4 update adds cross-play, changes to Erangel
M Alzamora
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds’ Season 4 is due soon, and PUBG Corp. used the background of Gamescom to share new details about changes to Erangel, among other exciting additions to the game. Starting with the game’s original map, Erangel, we’ll see a transformation that’ll bring its visuals in line with the features, design, and art direction of newer maps. The map will feature new buildings, revamped terrain, and improved graphical fidelity. Specifically, …
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Team SoloMid cuts Wookiebookie, reveals new PUBG lineup
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
Team SoloMid’s PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds division is being shaken up. The organization has announced the signing of Omer “Iroh” Develi, who replaces Peter “Wookiebookie” Lassen. TSM is also adding a new coach in Dylan “Didz” Didiano. TSM has had a somewhat disappointing run in the PEL so far, failing to qualify for the FACEIT Global Summit after phase one, and the GLL Grand Slam after phase two. The organization’s only special …
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PUBG Mobile continues to punish cheaters, releases over 100 names
Olivia Richman
PUBG Mobile developers are continuing to fight hackers. In a recent letter, the operations team released a list of over 100 hackers who were caught between August 6 and August 12. All of the accounts on the list were issued 10-year bans. “We have always strived to deliver a gaming environment that is fair and enjoyable for each and every player and prevent cheating. We take this issue very seriously, …
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PUBG developers announce sound improvements for footsteps, weapons
Olivia Richman
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds will be receiving major sound updates in the near future. The PUBG Sound Team recently published a press release that outlines their sound improvement timeline. A member of the team, Kyungwon Park, explained that sound is “one of the most important aspects” of the battle royale, since it offers key information about players’ enemies and the environment. “It has been around two years since PUBG was introduced, and …
PUBG Mobile Club Open fall registration open with $2.5 million prize
Olivia Richman
News
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds Mobile Club Open registration is finally open. From August 8 to August 22, teams from ten regions can register to play in the fall split, where they will compete for part of a $2.5 million prize pool. These regions include Southeast Asia, China, Europe, North America, South Asia, Japan, MENA, South America, and Korea. Any teams from a country not included in those regions may enter under the …
Cloud9 cuts PUBG roster despite repeated successes in NPL
Steven Rondina
News
Cloud9 is getting out of the PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds business. Speaking on Twitter, the organization announced the release of its National PUBG League roster. Former Cloud9 player Magno “Pr0phie” Ramos discussed the news on social media shortly thereafter. “As of today, Hunter “hwinn” Winn, Ben “Nerf” Wheeler, Thierry “Kaymind” Kaltenback, and I are free agents,” Pr0phie said on Twitter. “We will be staying together because we are more than just a …
PUBG teams walk out of major tournament after multiple controversies
Steven Rondina
News
An important PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds tournament was the site of a massive controversy. A local power outage in Bangkok, Thailand impacted the MET Asia Series: PUBG Classic. The surge sparked a series of events that saw a number of teams walk out of the event, prompting larger action from the PUBG Corp. On day two of the event, a power outage occurred during the twelfth match. At that point, just 11 …
PUBG Mobile Club Spring Finals sees China take top three spots
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
News
Top Esports has won the PUBG Mobile Club Open Spring Split Global Finals. The international PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds Mobile event was held in Berlin and saw the Chinese squad take home the $180,000 top prize. They took that spot with a 344-point effort across 16 games. It was a strong showing from Top Esports, who stood tall atop a field that included teams from Asia, Europe, and the Americas. The PUBG …
Alan Walker and A$AP Rocky produce new single for PUBG Mobile
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
News
Alan Walker has once again collaborated with PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, this time to release an exclusive single for PUBG Mobile, “Live Fast”. The single also features A$AP Rocky. Internationally popular Norweigan DJ Alan Walker and American rapper Rakim Mayers, known by his alias A$AP Rocky, have produced a new theme song for PUBG Mobile. The song was debuted with the start of PUBG Mobile Club Open 2019 Spring Split Global Finals …
PUBG Season 4 changes Erengel and adds a new Survivor Pass
Olivia Richman
News
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds Season 4 is now live on PC, introducing an updated Erengel map and all-new Survivor Pass. According to the 4.1 patch notes, millions of players have dropped into Erengel since the game’s launch. Without losing the magic that made fans love the classic map, the developers decided to update the map’s graphics and terrain to help players better understand the battle-scarred island’s war-ridden past. “To the players that …
FaZe Clan triumphant at PUBG GLL Grand Slam, fend off Athletico
Jared Wynne
News
Last weekend the first GlobalLoot Grand Slam in PUBG: Classic took place and European FaZe team swept the competition for a lion’s share of the $300,000 prize pool and the title of back-to-back PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds champions. PUBG currently has a year-long rotation in its competitive scene. Annually there are three regional phases ending in a Global Championship, as well as three independent PUBG: Classic competitions. GLL this year joined the …
PUBG Season 4 brings Erangel update, rebalanced weapons and vehicles
Steven Rondina
News
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is entering its fourth season and things are set to be shaken up in a big way. The version 4.1 patch notes are now published on the official PUBG website. While a number of new features have already been teased, the list of changes set to arrive is an extensive one. The big highlight of the next update is the long-awaited launch of the new Erangel. The PUBG …
New matchmaking system in PUBG has fans furious with developers
Steven Rondina
News
The PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds development team is tackling one of the game’s most frustrating problems. In a lengthy statement on the game’s Steam Community page, PUBG Corp discussed their plans to better streamline the matchmaking process. In the coming weeks, new features will be added which will ideally reduce queue times and give players more flexibility in terms of the matchmaking process. “Matchmaking is crucial to this goal, and it is …
PUBG Nations Cup rosters set for USA, Canada, and Australia
William Davis
News
Canada, the United States, and Australia have all revealed their rosters for the upcoming PUBG Nations Cup. The PUBG Nations Cup is right around the corner, and the national teams involved are now sharing the official rosters. Canada, USA, and Australia presented the players and coaches that will represent the countries at the event. On August 9, 16 all-stars team will gather in Seoul to fight for the title, the …
PUBG Mobile update introduces PP-19, improves tier system
Olivia Richman
News
The PUBG Mobile 0.13.5 beta version has been released. Tencent announced the update on the official Discord server and it’s now live for both Android and iOS. The newest version of PUBG Mobile brings a new gun to the game and some much-needed changes to the tier system. PUBG Mobile’s newest weapon addition is the PP-19. This is the battle royale’s fifth SMG. But what has players talking is the …
Jordan to ban PUBG and more, cites violent images and harassment
Olivia Richman
News
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds has been banned in Jordan. The country’s Telecommunication Regulatory Commission have announced that PUBG and six other games, including Fortnite, have a “negative impact” on the people who play them. The TRC referenced a study by the World Health Organization, who ruled video game addiction as a mental disorder in 2018. “Video game addiction increases the levels of depression, anxiety, and violence of users, and affects health. Physical …
PUBG: Battlegrounds enjoyed an explosive rise and rapid fall that few games can match. But despite being far from its heyday, the game still stands as one of the biggest battle royales on the market.
Initially launching in 2017 as PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, PUBG laid the framework for the battle royale genre in many ways. Though competitive survival games weren’t new, mechanics like a shrinking play area and air-dropping into the battlefield were popularized in PUBG. The game also took a comparatively realistic approach to its gameplay mechanics, which set it apart from most popular shooters of the day.
So what actually happened to PUBG? And what’s the future of the game at this point?
PUBG booms, becomes biggest game on Steam
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds first launched on PC in March 2017 in early access.
Despite arriving in a pre-launch state, the game saw rapid growth during the year, averaging six-figure player counts by May 2017 and hitting 1 million concurrent players in September. By the time the game was officially released in December 2017, it was averaging over 1.4 million players. In January 2018 it set the Steam record for most concurrent users for any game at 3,236,027 players. That record stands to this day, despite competition from games like Palworld and Black Myth: Wukong.
Despite hitting uniquely high numbers, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds suffered a precipitous fall in player counts throughout 2018. There were numerous reasons for this, foremost among them being a tidal wave of competitors.
In 2017, Epic Games added a battle royale mode to its Fortnite: Save the World cooperative PvE game. Despite being heavily derivative of PUBG, Fortnite: Battle Royale became the king of the genre and eclipsed PlayerUnknown’s Battelgrounds’ popularity. Alongside this, numerous series created battle royale spin-offs of their own, most notably Call of Duty: Warzone and Apex Legends. Games like Battlefield 5 and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive also released their own battle royale modes. On top of all this, PUBG found itself competing with its own spin-offs.
PUBG: Mobile eclipses the popularity of original game
Though PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds reached unseen heights before in PC gaming, its mobile spinoff was actually even bigger.
PUBG: Mobile launched in March 2018. Created jointly by PUBG Studios and LightSpeed Studios, it was a booming success across the world, particularly in South Asia and Southeast Asia, being downloaded over 1.3 billion times as of December 2022.
Unlike Fortnite, which is the same game across multiple platforms, PUBG: Mobile is a fully distinct game from the original PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds. While Fortnite allowed for cross-play across all platforms and cross-progress for players who used multiple devices, and the mobile version of the game is on an island of its own.
At their core, the games have a similar look and feel. PUBG: Mobile has some significant gameplay differences, however, with different maps and weapons from those seen in the original PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds. Not only that, but it has original game modes not found in the PC or console versions of the game.
While there is a schism between fans over which is better, there’s no doubt about which was more popular.
PUBG: Mobile was big enough to have been at the center of numerous media campaigns and government sanctions. The game was banned in both India and Bangladesh, and was forced to rebrand and censor some content in China. This forced the game to be re-released in some regions on multiple occasions.
Despite this, PUBG: Mobile has enjoyed overwhelming commercial success, with publisher Krafton stating it had generated over $9 billion in revenue by the end of 2022.
In 2021, PUBG Studios split from LightSpeed to create its own PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds mobile spin-off. While PUBG: Mobile was still actively maintained and remained popular, PUBG: New State was released in 2021 across all major mobile game stores. PUBG: New State has similar gameplay to its sister titles, but with a cyberpunk coat of paint to its characters and environments.
The release of the game confused fans due to the enduring popularity of PUBG: Mobile and largely similar gameplay. PUBG: New State’s key distinction from PUBG: Mobile was that it was developed internally by PUBG Studios and wouldn’t have any revenue sharing with an external developer or publisher.
In 2022, PUBG: New State was rebranded as New State Mobile. Though the game has a working player base, it has fallen far short of the popularity of PUBG: Mobile.
Free-to-play pivot gives PUBG: Battlegrounds a second wind
From December 2017 to December 2018, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds suffered a decline of more than 68% of its player base. The average player count went from 1.44 million to about 474,000 year-over-year.
This decline continued for some time until January 2022, when the game went free-to-play. This led to a short-lived boom that declined over the following months, before trending upwards in 2023 and 2024. That growth continued into 2025 and in March 2025, PUBG: Battlegrounds hit a concurrent player count of 1,329,605, its best figure since July 2018.
Though the game may not be as popular as it once was, PUBG: Battlegrounds remains one of the biggest competitive games online, and all signs point to it enduring for many years to come.
