Ever since its early access release back in March 2017, PUBG: Battlegrounds has grown to be one of the more successful games in recent years. Although now overtaken by numerous other titles, it was Krafton's PUBG that set the stage for the battle royale genre in the mainstream gaming space. But even with the likes of Fortnite, Call of Duty: Warzone, Apex Legends, and others, PUBG continues to expand its offering to fans. Its latest update brings a new addition to the Training Mode along with a host of other changes.
PUBG has gained some popularity again during the past few months following its move to the free-to-play model. The move has been so successful that PUBG: Battlegrounds saw an almost 500% growth rate with the free-to-play launch. This rate was even higher in certain areas, such as in the Asian and South American regions. Amidst all this, the battle royale appears keen on capitalizing on the recent growth as it focuses on making changes and introducing new elements to keep fans entertained. The game's 1v1 Arena for Training Mode is one such addition.
As per the update 17.2 patch notes, the 1v1 Arena in Training Mode will let players go through 1v1 rounds with another player or spectate other players' fights in the arena. When going against another player, each match will be three rounds, with each round lasting 60 seconds. Additionally, while waiting to enter a 1v1 match, players will not be able to enter other PUBG training areas, including the Aim/Sound Lab, private indoor target practice, or Jump School.
The update, which will launch on May 11 for PC and May 19 for consoles, also lists several other changes to PUBG, such as the added weapon balancing to the MK12 and the Mini14 DMRs. Krafton claims that usage of the 5.56mm DMRs was far below expectations and hopes that the tweaks will make them "more appealing and used more frequently." Further, the game's spotter scope is getting some noticeable changes too, such as the enemy detection range going from 1000m to 600m and the white passive marker no longer appearing automatically in ADS mode.
Although PUBG has grown with its free-to-play shift, its numbers have already started to dwindle. Steam tracking service SteamDB puts the number of concurrent PUBG players since free-to-play peaking at 700,000. That's a notable drop compared to the 3 million concurrent Steam players around January 2018. Regardless, the developers don't look to be done with PUBG any time soon, considering the slate of updates and announcements in the past few months. In fact, with rumors of a possible PUBG 2 in the works, excitement and anticipation for the battle royale will likely persist.
PUBG: Battlegrounds is available now on Mobile, PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One.
Source: PUBG: Battlegrounds