Since early March, AAA battle royale games have slowly been making their way onto the mobile gaming platform. It started first with the Fortnite mobile port, and now PUBG Mobile has officially hit the scene for the entire U.S. to play for free.
Although this is the first official U.S. release of PUBG Mobile, the mobile port has been available in China for the past 2 months. This is due to the fact that the mobile developers, LightSpeed & Quantum Studio, and publisher, Tencent Games, are both Chinese-based companies. The beta for the game has also been available in the U.S.
Because this is a mobile, not everything is exactly the same as PUBG‘s PC or console counterpart. For starters, the graphics have obviously been toned down quite a bit, but there are three different graphical options for users to choose from based on their mobile device. The shooting mechanics are also not as complex as the leaning mechanics are gone and the physics are not as nuanced. The looting and inventory system have been simplified by giving players only two guns total to wield, and players automatically pick up loot based on your loadout. Also, the game is only playable in third person and only on the first PUBG map.
In addition, there are daily quests for logging in, quests for playing with friends, killing enemies, and much more that comes from modern mobile games. However, aside from this, the base game is still PUBG. You start off in a plane with 99 other people, drop into the map, loot up, and try to be the last one standing. After each match, you receive BP, the in-game currency, which can go towards lootboxes for cosmetic items.
For those that are more competitive, there are ranked game seasons for solo, duo, and squad play, with the first season going on right now. Performing well earns you points that go towards upgrading your rank, with the lowest being bronze, and the highest at the moment being platinum. There are also leaderboards that reflect these respective ranks and modes of play.
PUBG Mobile is now available on the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store in the U.S. with more regions to be announced in the future. You can also play right now for free by either registering an account through Facebook, or you can simply play as a guest. Other than the optional microtransaction for lootboxes, there are no fees required to play.