I’m 26, and I still remember the first time I dropped into Erangel. It was 2017, I was running PUBG on a barely capable laptop, and the game looked like a potato. But it didn’t matter. The adrenaline of parachuting in, scavenging for loot, and surviving until the final circle was unlike anything I’d played before. Fast forward to 2025, and PUBG’s come a long way—from janky early access to polished battle royale staple. It’s been a wild ride, and I figured it’s worth looking back at how it all unfolded.
This isn’t a history lesson. It’s just one guy’s take on how PUBG evolved over the years, what it got right, what it messed up, and why it still matters.
The Mod That Started It All
Before PUBG was PUBG, it was a mod. Brendan “PlayerUnknown” Greene built a battle royale mode for ARMA 2, inspired by the Japanese movie Battle Royale. It was gritty, slow-paced, and brutally realistic. That mod eventually caught the attention of developers, and Greene was hired to help build H1Z1: King of the Kill. But he had bigger plans.
In 2016, Greene teamed up with South Korean studio Bluehole to create a standalone game. That game became PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, and it hit early access in March 2017. It was rough—bugs, lag, crashes—but it was also revolutionary. PUBG didn’t invent battle royale, but it made it mainstream2.
2017–2018: The Boom Years
PUBG exploded. Within months, it had millions of players. Streamers like Shroud and DrDisrespect helped fuel the hype, and “Winner Winner Chicken Dinner” became a meme. The game was simple: 100 players drop in, loot up, and fight to be the last one standing. No respawns, no second chances.
Erangel was the only map at launch, and it was perfect—big, open, and full of tactical possibilities. Then came Miramar, the desert map, which added long-range combat and more verticality. Sanhok followed, offering faster-paced action on a smaller map. Each new map changed how people played, and that kept things fresh4.
PUBG also hit consoles—Xbox One in late 2017, PS4 in 2018—and launched PUBG Mobile, which became a monster in its own right. Especially in places like India and China, mobile PUBG was the game.
2019–2020: Growing Pains
With success came problems. PUBG’s performance was a mess. Frame drops, desync, and hackers were everywhere. Fortnite was gaining ground with its smoother gameplay and free-to-play model, and PUBG started to feel clunky by comparison.
To their credit, PUBG Corp didn’t sit still. They rolled out updates to improve optimization, added bots to help new players ease in, and introduced Vikendi—a snowy map with unique mechanics like footprints and dynamic weather. They also launched a ranked mode, which gave competitive players something to grind for beyond cosmetics.
But the game was starting to show its age. The gunplay was still solid, but the UI felt dated, and the pace was slower than what newer battle royales were offering.
2021–2023: Reinvention and Refinement
This was the era of reinvention. PUBG went free-to-play in early 2022, which brought a wave of new players. They revamped Erangel with better textures and lighting (Erangel 2.0), added new weapons and vehicles, and introduced features like drones, revive kits, and destructible environments.
The devs also leaned into esports. PUBG Global Championship and regional leagues became more polished, with better production and bigger prize pools. The game’s tactical depth made it a great fit for competitive play, even if it wasn’t as flashy as some of its rivals.
PUBG Mobile kept evolving too, with exclusive content, crossover events (Godzilla, Resident Evil, etc.), and its own esports ecosystem. In some regions, PUBG Mobile was more popular than the PC version by a mile.
2024–2025: PUBG in the Modern Era
So where’s PUBG now? Honestly, it’s in a good place. It’s not the hottest game on Twitch, but it’s stable, mature, and still fun. The devs have focused on quality-of-life improvements, better matchmaking, and seasonal content that keeps things interesting.
There’s more cross-platform play, better anti-cheat systems, and a steady stream of updates. The game feels smoother, looks better, and plays tighter than it did five years ago. It’s not trying to be flashy—it’s just trying to be solid.
PUBG’s roadmap for 2025 includes new player actions, vehicle mechanics, and item systems. They’re not reinventing the wheel, but they’re refining it. And that’s fine by me.
What PUBG Got Right
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Gunplay: Still one of the best in the genre. Recoil, bullet drop, and weapon variety make every fight feel earned.
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Map Design: Erangel, Miramar, Sanhok, Vikendi—they all offer different styles of play. No map feels like filler.
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Tension: PUBG nails the feeling of survival. Every match is a story. Every kill matters.
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Esports Potential: The game’s pacing and tactical depth make it great for competitive play.
What PUBG Struggled With
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Performance: For years, PUBG was a mess on lower-end systems. It’s better now, but the early days were rough.
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Cheating: Hackers were rampant, especially in Asia. Anti-cheat has improved, but it’s still a concern.
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Accessibility: PUBG isn’t easy to learn. There’s no tutorial, and the mechanics are complex. Bots helped, but it’s still intimidating for new players.
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UI/UX: The menus and inventory system have always felt clunky. They’ve improved, but they’re still not great.
Why PUBG Still Matters
PUBG isn’t just a game—it’s a blueprint. It showed that battle royale could be more than a gimmick. It inspired Fortnite, Apex Legends, Warzone, and a dozen other games. It proved that tension, realism, and strategy could coexist in a genre that’s often dominated by chaos.
Even now, PUBG offers something different. It’s slower, more tactical, and less forgiving. You don’t respawn. You don’t build. You just survive. And that simplicity is powerful.
For me, PUBG is comfort food. I don’t play it every day, but when I do, it feels familiar. The sound of the plane, the rush of looting, the panic of hearing footsteps—it’s all still there.
Final Thoughts
PUBG’s evolution over the years hasn’t been perfect. It stumbled, got overshadowed, and had to fight to stay relevant. But it never gave up. It kept improving, kept listening, and kept delivering a unique experience.
In 2025, PUBG isn’t the king of battle royale anymore. But it’s still a contender. It’s still worth playing. And it’s still one of the most important games of the last decade.
So yeah, that’s my take. No marketing fluff, no esports hype—just one guy reflecting on a game that changed the way we play.