PUBG: Battlegrounds has nearly doubled its player numbers on Steam. This development occurred on the day the game switched to a free-to-play model.
PUBG: Battlegrounds, previously known as PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds or simply PUBG, has been one of the largest games on Steam since its release in 2017. Although the game remained very popular, it never reached the player numbers of the initial months again. Now measures have been taken to make PUBG relevant once more.
What happened? On January 12, 2022, the game switched to a new payment model: It is now free-to-play instead of costing €29.99 as before. Thus, the game that established the battle royale genre follows the popular payment model of the latest BRs.
This step seems to have paid off: Compared to the last 2 months, the player numbers of PUBG have nearly doubled: The game had up to 668,707 players on the servers simultaneously after the switch (via SteamCharts). In December 2021, that number was still 363,839.
How does the game work as free-to-play? PUBG is now available for players on all platforms for free download. It no longer costs €29.99 as before.
Players now only have to pay for access to ranked and custom matches, alongside skins and cosmetics. For that, you need the DLC Battlegrounds Plus, which costs €12.99. All those who have paid for PUBG will receive this DLC immediately and at no additional cost.
Battle Royale remained popular but did not set any new records
In January 2018, the game had its biggest month. According to Steam Charts, over 3.2 million players were simultaneously engaged in the battle royale. This is still a record on Steam – second place belongs to CSGO from April 2020, where there were ‘only’ 1.3 million players (via SteamCharts).
These numbers have significantly shrunk since then, but the game has never become insignificant. Since the mega-record, the player numbers steadily declined, settling at around 450,000 players during peak times in 2021. Nevertheless, it was still often in the top 5 most played games on Steam.
With the switch to F2P, these numbers immediately improved again. At least in the short term.
Another game is also impressing with its player numbers – and it strongly resembles PUBG: Battlegrounds. What it’s all about, you can find out in our article:
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