PUBG: Battlegrounds

PUBG: Battlegrounds came out in December 2017 and took battle royale mainstream. It has been free since January 2022. Up to 100 players jump from a plane, hunt for weapons and gear and fight while the safe zone shrinks. You can go solo, as a duo or in a squad of four.

It plays slower than Fortnite. There’s no building, bullets drop and take time to arrive, and you can hear a car from far away. Twenty minutes of looting can end in a three-second gunfight. Some people love exactly that tension. If you want constant action, you’ll probably get bored.

On consoles the game now lives only on PS5 and Xbox Series: PS4 and Xbox One were cut off on November 13, 2025. On PC, including Steam, you need at least 8 GB of RAM and a GTX 960. Krafton’s 2026 roadmap includes a move to Unreal Engine 5, so we expect that bar to rise over time. What stays locked without paying is covered in our piece on what Battlegrounds Plus gives you.