When did PUBG Mobile come out? A brief history of the game

Mobile Games

December 22, 2024

Ahsan Kabir

PUBG Mobile (PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds Mobile), is a free-to-play BR game. It has put wings under the flight of mobile gaming and esports. It has been over 5 years since it was launched all over the world for mobile devices, but people are still curious about the game and how it achieved this massive success.

Image via Tencent

When did PUBG Mobile come out?

The story of PUBG begins with a guy by the name of Brendan Greene, aka PlayerUnknown, who developed a battle royale mod for the game ARMA 2. This mod witnessed a great deal of success, and hence PUBG: Battlegrounds was conceived as a standalone title from the original in December 2017.

This came after PUBG’s success and the growing possibilities in mobile gaming. The team collaborated with Tencent Games on developing their mobile version. And remarkably, it took only four months to finish such development. The mobile version was fully optimized and worked specifically on performance and graphics for mobile devices.

PUBG Mobile was officially released worldwide on March 19, 2018, for both Android and iOS platforms.

Within a short period, the game became one of the most-played mobile games, among many things, across the world. Now, the PUBG Mobile player count stands at millions.

Over the years, PUBG Mobile introduced several maps, modes, and collaborations through countless updates. With that, a full-fledged esports scene has sprouted up with match competitions such as the Club Open (PMCO) and Pro League (PMPL), and Global Championship (PMGC) drawing out players and audiences from across the world.

PUBG Mobile’s success, however, has been a double-edged sword. With widespread penetration, it has captured headlines worldwide, oftentimes for the wrong reasons. With some cases of gaming addiction and violence in PUBG Mobile coming up, many countries have banned the game.

From a small mod, the title has turned into quite the mobile gaming phenomenon. It renders the dynamic and ever-evolving nature of the gaming industry quite well. Krafton also released a sequel of PUBG Mobile for mobile platform titled as ‘New State’. If you want to know the differences between the two games, check out our article comparing PUBG Mobile and New State Mobile.