PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, now officially known as PUBG: Battlegrounds, is now free-to-play on all platforms. MyMMO tells you everythingwhat you need to know about it.
Without PUBG, Battle Royales would probably not be the huge phenomenon they are today. Nowadays the genre is dominated by Fortnite, CoD Warzone and Apex Legends – but the hype really started with PUBG. The competition from PUBG has had one huge advantage over the trendsetter so far: the other popular BRs are all free-to-play.
Now Bluehole Studios is following suit and making PUBG free as well. You can download the Battle Royale for free on PS4, PS5, Steam, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S.
For PlayStation players, this applies with a small caveat: Because the game is 16+, it costs like other free-to-play games with this age limit Playstation store 25 cents. This is to prevent minors from gaining access to the game.
Can I play the game right away? No. Although you can now download PUBG for free on all platforms, the game’s servers will be under maintenance for some time. This is intended to prepare the servers for the transition to an F2P model. You can then start on Wednesday, January 12th.
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The trendsetter of battle royales is now F2P
What makes PUBG special? After the release of PUBG in 2017, the game was a huge hit on Steam and Twitch and continues to be to this day the most played shooter on Steam. It’s also a phenomenon on smartphones with PUBG Mobile.
While PUBG wasn’t the first BR, it almost single-handedly propelled the genre into the behemoth it is today. With the change to an F2P model, even more players should now be able to play PUBG – the game previously cost 29.99 euros.
Will the game be completely free? No. You can play the base game without any problems, but you have to buy a DLC to access ranked matches and custom games.
This DLC is called Battlegrounds Plus. In addition to access to the modes mentioned, it also contains some cosmetic bonuses and in-game currency for additional skins. The price of the DLC is 12.99 euros. Players who already bought PUBG before the switch to the free-to-play model will get Battlegrounds Plus with a few cosmetics right away.
You can download it now for free and start playing on January 12th.
Here you can find out why the game itself made it into our list of the 15 best multiplayer shooters 2022 5 years after its release:
15 Best Multiplayer Shooters 2022 for PC, Switch, PS4, PS5 and Xbox