‘PUBG: Battlegrounds’ soars to No. 1 on Steam

Krafton’s battle royal shooter “PUBG: Battlegrounds” topped the most played games chart on Steam, a digital distribution platform for PC gaming, Thursday.

According to Krafton, the number of concurrent users doubled after the game switched to free-to-play mode Wednesday, recording a maximum number of 660,000 users.

“Under the new theme of ‘Battlegrounds for all,’ we believe that the switch to free service allowed many users from various backgrounds to enjoy the game,” a Krafton official said in a press release Friday.

“‘PUBG: Battlegrounds’ is the only Korean game entitled a global-hit game. We hope to expand the power of the game’s IP with the new free-to-play mode policy,” the official added.

The online multiplayer shooting game involves 100 players fighting in a last man standing match, where the last survivor becomes the winner.

Users can choose to start the match in solo, duo mode or as a team of up to four players.

In response to the global popularity, “PUBG: Battlegrounds,” launched in 2017 as a paid game, expanded to mobile versions “PUBG Mobile” (2018) and “PUBG: New State” (2021).

By Lee Si-jin (sj_lee@heraldcorp.com)