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PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds

 
PUBG, the game that Fortnite copied, copies Fortnite by bringing back the battle royale shooter’s original mapApr 24, 2024 - Rock, Paper, ShotgunPlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds - aka the game that inspired and then was overtaken by Fortnite’s Battle Royale mode - is seemingly borrowing a leaf from its cartoony cousin’s playbook by resurrecting its original map. Read more 'We are going home': PUBG's original Erangel map from Early Access is 'making a triumphant return to the battlegrounds'Apr 24, 2024 - PC GamerPlayerUnkown's Battlegrounds is scrapping the new and going back to the old so players can revisit the classic Erangel map, which was the battle royale's first-ever battleground. It will be available on PC from May 14 and is "designed to evoke nostalgia for players who remember the early days," according to an official blog post... Read more.PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS Weekly Bans Notice (04/15~04/21)Apr 24, 2024 - Community Announcements{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/27971017/6665b8db8893f3f61b8adffd82c7fa3705dd09be.png Read the full announcement here!Erangel Classic ReturnsApr 24, 2024 - Community Announcements{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/27971017/09fb1aa51e1f820c8f002942cf2c8a65beb95921.png Read the full announcement here!PUBG Care Package EP. 3 VOD & SummaryApr 23, 2024 - Community Announcements{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/27971017/93406b33a8b1cf1f8c62308fb0d1f989788343bf.png Read the full announcement here!PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS Weekly Bans Notice (04/08~04/14)Apr 17, 2024 - Community Announcements{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/27971017/6665b8db8893f3f61b8adffd82c7fa3705dd09be.png Read the full announcement here!Dev Letter: Matchmaking for Normal MatchApr 16, 2024 - Community Announcements{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/27971017/72b903dd579adfa0a97d09a5e6609392b7b7f24b.jpg Read the full announcement here!PUBG has dramatically transformed over the years, swapping grittiness for cartoon outfits, but it's still as ruthless and chaotic as everApr 11, 2024 - PC GamerCast your mind back to 2017, when battle royales weren't even a glint in most games developers' eyes and PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds—now officially known as PUBG: Battlegrounds—smashed its way into early access. It rapidly rose through the ranks, and soon became one of Steam's most-played games. While there had been mods inspired by the Battle Royale film before, there hadn't been anything quite like this. It was nihilistic, intensely unwelcoming and brutally difficult to get to grips with. I played for a year, but my interest faded as the game moved out of the popular consciousness. I never forgot the ridiculous tension, though, or the silly situations that the game constantly threw my way... Read more.PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS Weekly Bans Notice (04/01~04/07)Apr 10, 2024 - Community Announcements{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/27971017/6665b8db8893f3f61b8adffd82c7fa3705dd09be.png Read the full announcement here!Winners: 7th Anniversary Screenshot EventApr 10, 2024 - Community Announcements{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/27971017/cc7f112f9fe1c5f7813ec95234f2f444c2fca9a7.png Read the full announcement here!Playerunknown's Battlegrounds: Battlegrounds has added destructible terrainApr 9, 2024 - Rock, Paper, ShotgunThe multiplayer FPS which fools would tell you is named PUBG: Battlegrounds has added destructible terrain in an update today, letting you dig your own hole or punch through to enemies. Some might tell you this is inspired by Fortnite or Minecraft, especially considering you can dig with a pickaxe, but in my heart it's further confirmation that Plunkbat is a stag & hen weekend simulator. After all, you can have your stag do at Diggerland. Awright lads, where we digging? Read more 2024 Global Partner Teams Skins Available NOW!Apr 9, 2024 - Community Announcements{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/27971017/f22f2764d74bd4d6fdf9c1c3a5bb712f74d1a72b.png Read the full announcement here!PUBG x DucatiApr 8, 2024 - Community Announcements{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/27971017/e007b41868d43e26d92a15b2b932fb010f5a0524.png Read the full announcement here!Special Drops - April 2024Apr 8, 2024 - Community Announcements{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/27971017/f10db5ab0491cc9fa80ea928a9827cd3b315b425.jpg Read the full announcement here!April Store Update 2024Apr 8, 2024 - Community Announcements{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/27971017/295356a1af07334716455e981de0da0e30cbecbd.jpg Read the full announcement here!Dev Letter: Ranked PointsApr 8, 2024 - Community Announcements{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/27971017/8358c6900699d18768b90ef93d19c55134c9db2c.jpg Read the full announcement here!Patch Notes - Update 29.1Apr 7, 2024 - Community Announcements{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/27971017/fd538f7b2fb022b06e6fff534df7f19cf8ed7362.jpg Read the full announcement here!PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS Weekly Bans Notice (03/25~03/31)Apr 3, 2024 - Community Announcements{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/27971017/6665b8db8893f3f61b8adffd82c7fa3705dd09be.png Read the full announcement here!PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS Weekly Bans Notice (03/18~03/24)Mar 27, 2024 - Community Announcements{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/27971017/6665b8db8893f3f61b8adffd82c7fa3705dd09be.png Read the full announcement here!Introducing 2024 PUBG Esports Items!Mar 26, 2024 - Community Announcements{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/27971017/50ee4b4bf45f97b1c83b7c740df6e7ab22558480.png Read the full announcement here!PUBG is on Sale for the First Time Ever After Losing Half of its Player Base on SteamJun 21, 2018 - GitHypDespite still being at the top of Steam as the most played game, things haven’t been going too well for PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds over the past few months. With Fortnite continuing to grow in popularity, and new battle royale games on Steam like Realm Royale stealing a few players away, PUBG’s numbers have been on the decline since peaking at 3.2 million concurrent players back in January. In May, PUBG’s average had dropped by 50% when compared to January’s average of 1.6 million concurrent players. And June has been just as bad with an average of only 809k players and reviews from players recently turning to mostly negative. Now, the team at Bluehole are trying to put a positive spin on the game’s declining popularity by recently announcing that PUBG has reached 400 million players worldwide (with Mobile and Xbox included) and to celebrate the milestone the publisher is discounting the game by 33% on Steam. So far, the sale doesn’t seem to be helping the game… and player counts have continued to decline even after PUBG’s first two days of being marked down to $19.99. But with Valve’s Steam Summer Sale about to start any day now, PUBG should see a boost in sales. Last summer, PUBG was the hottest selling game during the Summer Sale, despite being one of the only games sold throughout the sale at its full retail price. Now discounted for the first time ever, Bluehole has clearly marked PUBG down to attract more buyers during Steam’s busiest sales week of the year. And with gamers losing control of their wallets during the beloved Summer Sale, PUBG is likely to see a wave of new players very soon… whether or not it can retain those players is what we’ll be keeping a close eye on in the coming months.February Marks the First Month That PUBG’s Player Base Has DeclinedFeb 12, 2018 - GitHypOver the past year, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds has seen a meteoric rise on a level that no other game has ever come close to matching on Steam. But after having one of the best years ever for a new PC game, it looks like PUBG’s growth has finally hit a ceiling. Shortly after leaving early access, PUBG started 2018 strong reaching a new all-time high of 3.2 million concurrent players with an average of 1.5 million players per hour. PUBG’s numbers in December and January didn’t just set new records on Steam, but absolutely crushed the previous record of 1.2 million simultaneous players held by Valve’s own Dota 2. But after hitting 3.2 million players last month, PUBG’s community has been on the decline week after week. So far in February, PUBG hasn’t been able to break 3 million players and this past weekend’s peak was down 17% with only 2.6 million players. [caption id="attachment_326726" align="aligncenter" width="786"] PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds Peak Concurrent Players on Steam via GitHyp[/caption] Brendan Greene (aka PlayerUnknown) had commented back in the summer that he was looking to follow League of Legends’ growth and was shooting for 100 million active users a month. A feat which didn’t seem as crazy as it sounded with PUBG being the first game to top Dota 2 on Steam and the first game to top LoL on Twitch back in August. While PUBG is certainly not going to die out any time soon like H1Z1, going head-to-head with League of Legends doesn’t seem possible now due to a few factors leading to the game’s first month in the red. For starters, the developers themselves have been aggressively banning over a million active players each month for cheating. While most PC gamers would approve of Bluehole’s decision regarding bans, players haven’t been happy about the dev's focus on the Xbox One and mobile releases while many major technical issues persist in the full PC version. [caption id="attachment_326727" align="aligncenter" width="786"] Average Viewers per Hour on Twitch in February 2018 via GitHyp[/caption] Another huge factor in PUBG’s decline is the success of Fortnite. The free-to-play cartoony take on PUBG’s battle royale mode has also been exploding in popularity recently. Last week, Epic Games took to Twitter to claim they’ve broken PUBG’s record with 3.4 million concurrent players. Although Epic doesn’t make their player counts available to the public, interest among streamers and viewers on Twitch seems to backup that number. Over the past month, Fortnite just barely edged out PUBG with an average of one thousand more viewers each hour on Twitch. Twitch’s most popular streamer and best free advertisement PlayerUnknown could ever ask for, Dr DisRespect, also took the entire month of January off for personal reasons. Despite often criticizing the game’s technical problems, his viewer base was usually what put PUBG at the top of Twitch and his hiatus has certainly hurt the game’s growth. With the Doc now back at the top of Twitch promoting PUBG over Fortnite, it’ll be interesting to see where PUBG goes from here. His record-breaking return wasn't enough to help PUBG regain the #2 spot on Twitch over Fortnite last week... and if the Doc can’t help stop the bleeding, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds could be in trouble if the developers don’t make some big changes soon.Only One of 2017's Top 10 Most Played Games on Steam was Released in 2017, Compared to Five in 2016Jan 3, 2018 - GitHypLast year, GitHyp reported 2016’s Most Played Games on Steam, and many were shocked to find how similar 2016 was compared to 2015. Although five new games cracked the top 10 when they launched in 2016, not even one managed to hold its position at the top by the end of the year. So how was 2017? Sadly, even worse. Despite more games than ever being released each day on Steam, only one new game cracked the top 10 in 2017, and that was PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds. In 2016, there were five new games that made it into the top 10 on Steam: 3) No Man's Sky w/ 212k peak players, 4) XCOM 2 w/ 132k peak players, 5) Dark Souls III w/ 129k peak players, 8) Tom Clancy’s The Division w/ 114k peak players, and 9) Total War: Warhammer w/ 112k peak players. In 2017, PUBG took the number one spot on Steam's top 10 with a record-breaking peak of 3 million players. The next closest new game was Divinity: Original Sin II at #12 with 93k players.
  1. PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds -- 3 million peak players (new)
  2. Dota 2 -- 1 million peak players (#1 in 2016)
  3. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive -- 815k peak players (#2 in 2016)
  4. Payday 2 -- 248k peak players (#34 in 2016)
  5. Grand Theft Auto V -- 171k peak players (#6 in 2016)
PUBG’s phenomenal growth also overshadowed one the year’s other biggest success stories: Payday 2’s extraordinary comeback. The four-player co-op shooter released all the way back in 2013 on Steam, but the developer’s unique promotion of giving away five million free copies back in June helped it too explode in popularity over the summer. Just like in 2016, the rankings for new games in 2017 was even worse when looking at average player counts. PUBG also held the #1 position here. While the second biggest launch of the year, Divinity: Original Sin II, dropped from #12 to #58 overall with an average of only 6k players per hour. Payday 2 ended the year with an average of 32k pph, 3x more than its average in 2016. Steam’s highest played new games based on averages were those that benefited from releasing at the very end of 2017. Football Manager 2018 took #14 with 27k pph while Call of Duty: WWII's multiplayer took #25 with 15k pph. Both launched in November and WWII’s player base has already dropped drastically.
  1. PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds -- 550k avg. players per hour (new)
  2. Dota 2 -- 532k avg. players per hour (#1 in 2016)
  3. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive -- 370k avg. players per hour (#2 in 2016)
  4. Grand Theft Auto V -- 53k avg. players per hour (#4 in 2016)
  5. Team Fortress 2 -- 52k avg. players per hour (#3 in 2016)
With so many new games missing from the top of Steam, some of the year's biggest stories were the bombs. Conan Exiles started out as one of the most played and streamed games in 2017, but the early access title lost 97% of its player base in the first four months. Ubisoft's For Honor was the year's biggest flop dropping from a peak of 71k players all the way down to an average of 4.4k players. While LawBreakers ended up even worse than 2016's disappointing Battleborn launch with the beta for CliffyB's new shooter peaking at 7.5k players and struggling to break 50 concurrent players by the end of 2017. Other singleplayer games that were considered on many Best of 2017 lists also didn't bring in huge player counts at launch. Prey peaked with 24k players at #61 and ended 2017 with 1.7k pph at #152. Resident Evil 7 peaked with 20k players at #74 back in February, lost 90% of its playerbase one month later, and new free DLC wasn’t enough to help raise its average of only 863 pph at #262. And one of the most rage-inducing/beloved indie games in years, Cuphead, peaked with 19k players at #82 and ended with an average of 3.6k pph at #82. Looking back at 2017 in review, gamers just weren't as hyped for new titles on Steam as they were in 2016. Most looking for a new experience flocked to PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds. Its explosive growth dethroned Valve's own top games, CS:GO and Dota 2, and as a result became Steam's new #1 game -- even with mixed reviews and most claiming it doesn’t deserve to be called "Game of the Year." But aside from PUBG, 2017 was an even worse year than before for new games looking to build their player bases.PUBG Just Surpassed Dota 2 and Destiny 2’s Highest Concurrent Player PeaksSep 16, 2017 - GitHypPlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds absolutely dominated Summer 2017 with its player base growing by 3000% since hitting early access back in March. The survival shooter has been breaking records week after week, and now, it has set the record for arguably the most important stat on Steam: All-Time Peak Concurrent Players. Last week, PUBG became the second game ever to pass 1 million concurrent players on Steam. An impressive feat for a six-month-old game -- especially considering that the only other game to hit seven figures on Steam has been Valve’s own Dota 2 -- which peaked at 1.2 million players back in March 2016. Today, just one week after joining the dos commas club, PUBG has added another 300k gamers to its player base and set the new all-time peak player record on Steam at 1.3 million players. [caption id="attachment_291248" align="aligncenter" width="770"] PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds Peak Concurrent Players on Steam via GitHyp[/caption] To put PUBG’s player base success into perspective, Dota 2 has been the most popular game on Steam for years and Valve’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive was the previous No. 2 with a peak of 845k players. Bungie recently touted on Twitter that Destiny 2 also had 1.2 million concurrent players during its launch last week. Unfortunately, only Bungie and Activision know whether that number has gone up or down since then, and sadly even when Destiny 2 comes to PC next month, the sequel won’t be released on Steam for GitHyp to continue tracking the player counts. PlayerUnknown himself, Brendan Greene, has stated in prior interviews that he’s looking to follow League of Legends’ growth with hopes of PUBG some time in the future having 100 million active users a month. Although that number seems crazy at the moment, PUBG’s player base has shown no signs of slowing down and the survival shooter was actually the most watched game on Twitch in August, taking the No. 1 spot from LoL for the first time in years.PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds Hits 1 Million Concurrent Players on SteamSep 8, 2017 - GitHypPlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds has been on an unstoppable run breaking records all summer long. In August, the survival-based shooter dethroned League of Legends as the most watched game on Twitch. And now, it’s the second game ever to break 1 million concurrent players on Steam. Just one month ago, we reported that PUBG’s player base passed Counter-Strike: Global Offensive for the first time to rank in at No. 2 on Steam. A few weeks later, it broke CS:GO’s all-time record of 845k players. As predicted, PUBG is now challenging Dota 2 on a daily basis for the No. 1 spot on Steam. But what’s more shocking, is that the popular battle royale game is already gunning for the No. 1 all-time peak player count record currently held by Valve’s most popular IP. [caption id="attachment_289354" align="aligncenter" width="770"] PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds Peak Players per Hour on Steam via GitHyp[/caption] Today, PUBG brought in a new peak of 1,028,540 players. Dota 2 at its peak back in March 2016 hit 1.2 million players. Despite its viewer base on the rise, Dota 2 hasn’t seen over 1 million players since January 2017 and its player base has slightly declined over the past year. Back in June, we reported that PUBG was impressively adding 25k+ new players each week. We expected its growth to continue, but admittedly not anywhere near the ridiculous rate it has been on as of late. More recently, the shooter has been adding over 100k new players each week and is still growing. Based off PUBG’s current explosive growth, the survival shooter is on track to also break Dota 2’s all-time concurrent player record in just the next couple weeks.For the First Time in Years, League of Legends Wasn’t the Most Watched Game on Twitch Last MonthSep 5, 2017 - GitHypSince GitHyp started tracking Twitch’s most watched games back in 2015, League of Legends has been the undefeated champion holding the top spot every single month. But with LoL’s viewership down 15% compared to last year and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds exploding in popularity this summer, August 2017 was the first month that the most popular game in the world didn’t take the No. 1 spot on Twitch. Just like its rising player base on Steam, PUBG’s viewership on Twitch has grown tremendously over the past few months. The battle royale stand-alone had an impressive 70k viewers per hour when it debuted back in March. However, unlike other recent new releases over the past few months which have seen their hype die down after launching, interest in PUBG has actually continued to grow – most recently pulling in 100,864 viewers per hour last month. August 2017’s Top 5 Most Watched Games on Twitch via GitHyp:
  1. PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds – 100k viewers per hour / 393k peak viewers / 69.8 million viewers
  2. League of Legends – 97k viewers per hour / 377k peak viewers / 67.6 million viewers
  3. Dota 2 – 66k viewers per hour / 845k peak viewers / 46.4 million viewers
  4. Hearthstone – 63k viewers per hour / 209k peak viewers / 44.2 million viewers
  5. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive – 35k viewers per hour / 286k peak viewers / 24.2 million viewers
Looking at Twitch’s Top 5 in August, developer Bluehole’s PUBG beat Riot Games’ League in all three major categories: viewers per hour, peak viewers, and total viewers. The only stat PUBG didn’t hit No. 1 for was peak viewers, which went to Valve’s Dota 2 during The International 7’s $24 million tournament. Part of what contributed to PUBG becoming the new king of the hill on Twitch was the game’s own first-ever LAN invitational at Gamescom in Cologne, Germany. With $350,000 in prize money on the line, PUBG brought in a new all-time peak of 393k viewers on Twitch during the four-day tournament. Many have debated if PUBG’s unique multiplayer format can truly work as an eSport. That question remains to be seen as the game continues to evolve in Early Access, but the popular survival shooter is without question off to an exciting start – especially considering that it had more total viewers and a higher average viewer count than Dota 2 during the 4-year-old MOBA’s own best month ever on Twitch.PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds Just Passed CS:GO with a New Peak of 518k PlayersAug 4, 2017 - GitHypPlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds has exploded in popularity over the past few months. We first reported back in April that it debuted at #3 on Steam with a peak of 60k concurrent players during its first weekend. Now, four months later, PUBG has hit a new peak of 518k concurrent players. Not only is the 763% increase in players impressive, but the more newsworthy feat is that this new peak number has dethroned the long-reigning #2 most played game on Steam, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, at its own peak of 509k players today. [caption id="attachment_282030" align="aligncenter" width="770"] PlayerUnknown's Peak Concurrent Player Counts on Steam via GitHyp[/caption] When PUBG debuted, it was going head-to-head with H1Z1: King of the Kill for the Battle Royale genre. We originally predicted that it would dethrone H1Z1, but it’s shocking that PUBG is already taking on CS:GO with all signs pointing to it soon surpassing Valve’s beloved shooter for good. Looking at the growing playerbase trend, PUBG isn't showing any signs of slowing down and likely has another game already in its sights. Back in June, PUBG was adding around 25k-50k new players to its playerbase each week. In July it was going up by 40k-60k each week. At this continued growth rate, PUBG will be battling with Valve’s most played game on Steam, Dota 2, in just a few more months with a quarter million concurrent players.PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds Debuts at #3 on Steam and #1 on TwitchApr 3, 2017 - GitHypAfter fighting its way back to the top of Steam, H1Z1: King of the Kill now has some new competition. Brendan Greene aka PlayerUnknown, the original developer of the ARMA/DayZ Battle Royale mod (who also worked on King of the Kill), has just released his own take on the survival genre. And in just the first week of early access, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds has already become the No. 3 most played game on Steam. While it’s off to a great start, Battlegrounds is still far from topping the King. The two games’ peaks occur at opposite times of the day, so who occupies the No. 3 position changes based on what time you look. King of the King still edges out Battlegrounds holding the No. 3 spot a few more hours each day, but the more important stat is King of the King’s much higher player count numbers during its peak hours. Battlegrounds has been peaking at around 60k concurrent players during afternoons in the US. Those player counts drop by half throughout the night in the US, which is when King of the Kill begins seeing its playerbase rise to over 100k. King of the Kill's all-time highest peak was 124k concurrent players last month, but Battlegrounds is catching up quick and over this past weekend hit a new peak of 86k players. [caption id="attachment_254747" align="aligncenter" width="770"] PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds Peak Player Counts Per Day Since Launch via GitHyp[/caption] The success of PlayerUnknown’s new last person standing standalone is in large part due to the game's rising popularity on Twitch. Just as how Twitch’s top streamers embraced H1Z1 over DayZ and helped King of the Kill explode in popularity six months ago, we're now seeing those same streamers switching to Battlegrounds and bringing their viewers with them. PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds is constantly hitting over 100k concurrent viewers on Twitch where it has taken the No. 1 spot multiple times over fan favorites such as League of Legends, Dota 2, and Counter-Strike. Meanwhile, after peaking at 89k viewers last month, H1Z1 has dropped out of Twitch’s top 10 most viewed games and now averages highs around 30k viewers per hour. Although nowhere near as drastic as the drop-off in viewers after the launch of Battlegrounds, King of the Kill’s player counts have also started to slightly decline after the game reached its record-setting peaks two weeks ago. With the two games now going head-to-head, it’ll be interesting to see which game-changing features help the two games stay at the top of Steam and which game-breaking issues or new entries in the genre cause either of the two to fall off.

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