The online multiplayer battle royale genre is quickly taking the gaming world by storm. PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds may not have been the first game on the scene, but it revolutionized the genre and helped popularize it around the world. After numerous awards and millions of downloads, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds remains as popular as ever. With a meteoric rise like no other, the story of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is a modern love story between developers and players.

If you’re not familiar with PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds or the battle royale genre, or if you just want a quick refresher, here’s a rundown of how the game plays: At the start of the game, you’re parachuted out of an airship into a map of very large proportions with 99 other players. You can decide for yourself which area of ​​the map you want to land on and which area you think is best for your next step. Once you land on the ground, your goal is to be the last person/team standing. You can achieve your objective by searching for the best weapons and equipment possible, finding the most advantageous vantage point and defeating your enemies.

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is a first or third person massively online multiplayer game in which up to 100 players compete in a battle royale deathmatch until they are the last player or team (you can play alone, in pairs, or with up to 2 or 4 players in a team) to survive. Weapons and equipment are scattered in empty buildings, ghost towns, sheds and warehouses on the vast map. Vehicles ensure mobility. To keep players moving, the playable area shrinks (in stages) to random locations on the giant map. If a player is caught outside the “safe zone”, they take damage until they die or return to the safe zone. The game ends when only one player or team remains alive.

Battle Royale enters the stage

Now that we understand how the game works, let’s talk about its history and development. Game developer Brendan “PlayerUnknown” Greene had already developed an ARMA 2 mod, DayZ: Battle Royale, in the early 2010s, inspired by the 2000 Japanese film Battle Royale, in which a class of Japanese students are dropped on an island and forced to kill each other until they are the last survivor. Greene was living in Brazil at the time and played a lot of military-themed video games. He felt that many of the existing online action games were too repetitive due to the simple memorization of small maps and monotonous gameplay, so he wanted to create something with more random effects. A game with high replay value.

The Battle Royale genre revolves around survival, exploration, looting, and action, and has quickly become one of the most popular game genres in recent years. The concept has been around since the Japanese film Battle Royale, but it wasn’t until The Hunger Games films that it became a true subgenre. Early game adaptations can be found in mods for games like Minecraft and ARMA 2. But it wasn’t until the release of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds and Fortnite in 2017 that the genre became a cultural phenomenon. Open-world maps and powerful random effects seemed to be what many players wanted.

Experimentations

Brendan Greene’s ARMA 2 mod, DayZ: Battle Royale, initially piqued the interest of curious fans, but interest quickly faded. However, Sony Online Entertainment was clearly impressed after seeing Greene’s work and offered him a job as a consultant on their new battle royale game, H1Z1. In 2016, H1Z1 was split into two separate games, H1Z1: King of the Hill and H1Z1: Just Survive, focusing on different aspects of the genre. Although Green’s consulting phase with Sony was over at the time of the split, he wasn’t done with the genre yet. Not by any means.

Elsewhere in the world, Korean video game developer Changhan Kim wanted to make his game world famous. The genre he saw potential in had already garnered a small following in the West, but had so far received a lukewarm response in Korea. The genre was battle royale. After playing DayZ, Kim contacted developer Brendan Green, who eventually ended up offering Green a job as creative director at Kim’s company, Bluehole. Kim’s vision was to develop a new battle royale concept together with Green. And what will become of this concept?

A new concept takes over the world

You’re right! PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds was on fire. Development on the game began in 2016 and was scheduled to be completed a year later in 2017. According to Greene, the game was a passion project for Bluehole, and he and his co-developers worked a lot of overtime to make it as good as possible. Once news of the development spread through the gaming world, hype and interest began to grow, allowing the studio to hire more developers.

An early access beta was released in March 2017. Its popularity only grew from there. Players had never seen a game like this before and loved it. The surge in interest can be partially explained by its popularity among influencers and streamers, who thought it would be a perfect game for Let’s Play videos. Realizing how big the game could become, Bluehole turned all its attention to PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds and even renamed the studio to PUBG Corporation. The rapidly growing interest called for it. The game was released in full on PC in December 2017 to immediate success. The following year, it was finally released on consoles (Xbox One and PS4) and mobile devices (Android and iOS).

Even after the early access beta for PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds exceeded expectations, the newly renamed PUBG Corporation was surprised by the influx of players. The modern marketing strategy of getting Let’s Players, streamers, and influencers to play the game via Twitch and other social platforms worked. And duh. About a month after its Early Access release, the game had already sold over 1 million copies. Three months later, over 5 million players had purchased the game. And when the full version was released, over 30 million players had played PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, making it one of the highest grossing games of all time. It’s incredible.

The free-to-play version on mobile devices, PUBG Lite, was also a hit. As of 2020, the game has been downloaded over 600 million times (most of which were in China and India). Insane numbers.

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds has skyrocketed since its Early Access release, both in terms of player numbers and innovation. It shaped the Battle Royale genre into what it is today and inspired thousands of video game developers. It won awards for Best Multiplayer Game, Best Running Game, and Game of the Year, among others. It is different from many other eSports, but has established itself in international competitions and tournaments. PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is enjoyable for amateurs and professionals alike due to its random generation, ease of use, and replay value. From the moment Kim and Green met, there was no doubt that PUBG would always be new, original, challenging, and fun: a modern classic.