The battle royale PUBG is getting a second life by becoming completely free, which has earned it double its simultaneous attendance.
If you are fond of battle royale, you must know PUBG. The title indeed started the popularity of the game mode, long before Fortnite did. The only big difference with Epic Games’ game was in its business model. Indeed, Fortnite has always been available for free, while PUBG has just adopted the free-to-play model, since January 12.
This was announced during the Game Awards 2021, at the beginning of December. It goes without saying that this announcement had a very positive impact on the gaming community. Available on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and PC, PUBG has opened its doors to an infinite number of fighters who can now challenge each other, in cross-play and for free.
Unwanted players in the field
This had the effect of drastically increasing the attendance rate of the game during its transition to free-to-play. Analyst Daniel Ahmad said on Twitter that the title peaked at 670,000 concurrent players on January 12, and that on Steam alone! So that doesn’t even take into account players on consoles, or even on Google Stadia. However, this number represents double the simultaneous attendance recorded just the month before on the platform.
This scourge unfortunately concerns more and more online multiplayer games, and has a hard time being controlled. The switch to free-to-play has opened the door to more players, but also to more cheaters. Before its transition, the developers also wanted to thank the players of the first hour by offering them Battlegrounds Plus, the more complete and paid version of the basic game.
This version of the game allows you, for example, to join personalized games or even ranked games, which is not possible in the free-to-play version. Acting as a sort of compensation, you can already claim your paid version if you are one of those who purchased the game before January 12.
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