Image via Krafton

As of January 12, 2022, PUBG: Battlegrounds is a free-to-play game. The modify gave the battle royale game a massive spike, doubling its average concurrent histrion count the day it fabricated the change.

The numbers come from SteamDB, which is oftentimes used to measure the popularity of games on Steam. Until January 12, PUBG's boilerplate concurrent count was around 300,000 players. The solar day information technology changed to a free-to-play title, that average skyrocketed to simply over 625,000 — that'south more than double.

While it remains to exist seen if the strategy will continue to pay off for developer Krafton, the spike is nevertheless noteworthy. Krafton CEO CH Kim previously said that the shift was intended to "welcome new players" to the game. We tin't say for sure how many of those 625,000 players are newcomers, merely the numbers still paint a moving picture of lots of people engaging with PUBG. Additionally, creative director David Curd stated that the modify wasn't because of Fortnite, Apex Legends, or Telephone call of Duty: Warzone. "We feel that information technology is truly the correct time," Curd said. Given the player fasten, that feeling seems to have been proven truthful.

The gratis-to-play update is just ane of many in PUBG'southward history. The November content update added a smoke grenade launcher and chickens that give away histrion positions with their clucks. Expect to run across fifty-fifty more than content come to the game in the future to go on pulling players into the newly free-to-play championship.