PUBG peak concurrent player number on Steam 2017-2022

First released at the start of 2017, PUBG: Battlegrounds (previously known as PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds) is one of the most popular games on Steam and had over 425.49 thousand peak concurrent players in the last recorded month, November 2022. The highest number of concurrent players was recorded in January 2018 at 3.24 million.

One of the biggest games on Steam

PUBG gained a devoted legion of fans in a short space of time after its release and cumulative unit sales of the game hit 75 million in December 2021. The game has also been critically acclaimed - it won the Best Multiplayer Game at The Game Awards in 2017 and its free-to-play mobile version for Android and iOS, released in 2018, was nominated for Best Mobile Game at The 2018 Game Awards. This critical success has also translated into commercial success as the game generated millions of U.S. dollars of revenue, most successfully in the United States.

Battle of the Battle Royale games

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is an online battle royale game in which up to 100 hundred players battle it out until there is only one player or one team left standing. This format of game has become very popular in recent years. While PUBG has a strong following, especially on Steam, it has come under pressure from rival battle royale game, Fortnite. First released just several months after PUBG, Fortnite has since become a cultural phenomenon, amassing 350 million registered users in just three years. Will PUBG be able to keep up with Fortnite’s staggering growth or will it fall away to leave Fortnite as the last man standing?