A branch of Tencent Games called LightSpeed & Quantum Studio created the free-to-play battle royale game PUBG Mobile. PUBG: Battlegrounds was released for Android and iOS on March 19, 2018, for mobile devices.
Several companies, including Tencent, Krafton, and VNG Games, published it in various locations. PUBG Mobile was the fourth-highest-grossing mobile game by May 2022, with more than one billion downloads and over $8.42 billion in revenue. It is also the most played mobile video game of all time. In addition, battlegrounds Mobile India and New State Mobile, two unique games set in the PUBG universe, were born from the game in 2021.
The gameplay in PUBG Mobile is comparable to that in the first PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds. Depending on the gameplay option chosen before the battle, players may compete alone or in groups of two or four while fighting to be the last person standing after parachuting down to a lonely island. About 30 minutes pass between each game.
The game starts with the players flying over one of several potential maps, which were also chosen in advance of the competition. Players select their parachute landing decisions as they go across the Battlefield. A blue barrier separates the safe zone from the surrounding blue zone and forms around the island when the plane lands. Everyone still inside the safe zone will steadily lose energy until they can no longer maintain it and may even die as the safe zone shrinks every few minutes. The safe zone then shrinks, and the rate of health loss quickens.
When they first land on the island, players must either find supplies and weapons nearby or steal them from other players. More hazardous areas of the map generally have better tools and weaponry. Interim red zones may suddenly appear bombarded with bombs in addition to the normal shrinkage of the safe zone.
Additionally, the plane occasionally flies over the battleground to drop packages containing unique equipment, which may include stuff not available elsewhere on the island. In addition, the aircraft periodically flies over the combat area to drop parcels containing uncommon equipment, maybe including items not seen elsewhere on the island. These remarkable eventsāincluding the typical safe zone shrinkingāare notified beforehand to give the players fair notice.
Log-in bonuses, objectives and micro-goals, map, crew recruiting, compass enhancements with more significant and more evident markings near the teammates, an auto-loot system, and an increased number of bots are additional features exclusive to the mobile edition of PUBG.
Unreal Engine 4 was used to create PUBG Mobile in about four months. On January 24, 2019, PUBG Mobile Lite was initially made available in Thailand, a condensed version of the game for less powerful Android devices. Subsequent releases in more Latin American, African, and Asian nations followed.
PUBG Corporation and Tencent Games revealed intentions to create two smartphone versions of the video game in China after the Chinese publication arrangement for the Windows version. The first, PUBG Exhilarating Battlefield, was created by Quantum Studio & LightSpeed, a department under Tencent Games, and is a condensed version of the initial video game. The second, called PUBG Army Attack, was created by Tencent Timi Studio and featured more arcade-style characteristics, such as combat aboard battleships.Ā
Both versions, made available for iOS devices and Android on February 9, 2018, are free-to-play. The games, which upon debut, held the top two spots on the Chinese iOS downloads chart, had a combined 75 million pre-registrations. Exhilarating Battlefield was translated as PUBG Mobile and published globally on March 19, 2018, after a preliminary launch in Canada. In addition, both the Korean and Japanese-focused PUBG Mobile KR and the Vietnamese-focused PUBG Mobile VN were made available in June 2018 and Jan 2019, respectively.
The government had not yet authorised the release of PUBG Mobile in China, so the general public could only play the video game as a test. However, the government's suspension of approvals for most of 2018 postponed Tencent's anticipated rollout. As a result, Tencent announced in May 2019 that it would no longer try to release PUBG Mobile in China and would re-release the video game under Game for Peace.
The said video game version changed some aspects of the original video game to comply with China's censorship rules, such as removing blood and gore. The game was afterward followed by the release of PUBG Mobile TW in Taiwan.
On July 25, 2019, PUBG Mobile Lite, a version designed for less powerful mobile devices, was made available. This supports high frame rate gaming on various Android devices and contains a smaller area designed for 60 players. In addition, in 2020, the app's Chinese name was changed to Peacekeeper Elite.
The Information Technology and Ministry of Electronics outlawed PUBG Mobile in India on September 2, 2020. On October 30, 2020, Tencent Games stopped offering any services to consumers in India. Following the prohibition imposed by the Ministry of India, Krafton stated on May 6, 2021, that the game would be relaunched in India. Krafton released the game under the name Battlegrounds Mobile India in the nation, and only its citizens can access it.
A Pakistani teenager, age 14, shot and killed all his family members on January 28, 2022. The Punjab police stated that the game was a factor in the murders.
The game supports numerous e-sport leagues and competitions. A PMCO (PUBG Mobile Club Open) is held in each significant area, and players compete until subsequent rounds. Out of the numerous teams who registered, only 32 teams will advance. During this round, the 32 teams are grouped into four sections, eight members each, also called the PMCO group stages. The finals, which include the top 16 teams, are held following the group stages. The teams then battle in the PUBG Mobile Pro League, a higher level of play (PMPL).
Metacritic, a review aggregator, said that PUBG Mobile earned "generally favorable" reviews.
PUBG Mobile had approximately 300 million downloads globally, making it the second most downloaded mobile video game of 2018. China, which contributed 29% of the video game's downloads, came in first, followed by countries like India and the US, each of which had roughly 10% (30 million) of the game's downloads. With approximately 200 million more installations than Fortnite, it was the most famous battle royale video game of 2018. Outside of China, more than one billion downloads of PUBG Mobile have been made as of March 2021. As of August 2021, the game had 1.12 billion players overall, including those playing Battlegrounds Mobile India and the Chinese version of the video game Peacekeeper Elite.
In 2018, Japan saw revenue from PUBG Mobile of 3.58 billion ($32.42 million). By August 2020, the income from PUBG Mobile had reached $3.5 billion. The highest-grossing video game of the year in 2020, PUBG Mobile generated over 2.6 billion U.S. dollars in sales in 2020, taking its cumulative earnings to more than 4.3 billion U.S. dollars as of December 2020. By April 2022, that amount had risen to almost $8.42 billion.
PUBG Mobile won Golden Joystick Awards 2018 in the Mobile Game of the Year category.
The game won The Game Awards 2018 in the Best Mobile Game category.
The game was nominated for the Gamersā Choice Awards 2018 in the Fan Favorite Mobile Game category.
The game was nominated for Golden Joystick Awards 2019 in the E-Sports Game of the Year category.
