Pay no money, still play PUBG on PC: The Free2Play transition of the former high-flyer Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds (now PUBG Battlegrounds
) is closed. And the action brought numerous new players to the battle royale shooter, almost doubling the number of live users.
And especially the now rapid matchmaking finds its supporters in the community. However, players criticize the implications of the Free2Play model.
How have the player numbers developed?
PUBG has had an average of around 360,000 concurrent active users over the past few months. Anything but a lightweight in Steam dimensions, but also very far from the former maximum of 3.2 million.
The Free2Play release on January 12, 2022 now (as expected) provides a big plus on the player account. The highest value in the last 24 hours is 657,135 concurrent users. Not too surprising for a free release, but overall worth mentioning.
What’s new? Here’s the fresh PUBG trailer showing what’s new in Update 15.2:
2:42
In the trailer for update 15.2, PUBG shows what the Free2Play release will bring
What is the criticism?
the Steam Reviews split pretty much halfway between positive and negative, both overall and limited to the last 30 days.
The cheater problem is one of the most common criticisms: Developer Krafton has been accused of doing too little against cheaters in PUBG for years. The Free2Play release is now flaring up the debate again. No wonder, after all, Free2Play is often associated with an increased incidence of hackers, since you can create a new account relatively easily and at no extra cost in the event of a ban.
However, Krafton tackles the problem quite fundamentally by dividing free players and paying customers into the categories Basic
Plusto be grouped. Buyers can also play exclusively with other buyers in matchmaking. But that doesn’t silence the criticism.
Other players also see the sunny side of the Free2Play release: Matchmaking is now noticeably faster because more players are simply looking for a game. on Reddit some users welcome the new players.
Incidentally, the PUBG inventor is now going his own way again. And he wants to drive creative innovation with a bold concept:
Giant AI Open Worlds
PUBG inventor wants to compete with DayZ
Do you actively play PUBG? Are you dealing with a lot of cheaters? What would you wish for the future of Battlegrounds? Write us your opinion in the comments!