PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds has been free for almost two weeks now, and the change seems to have paid off.
According to PUBG parent company Krafton (via GameSpot), the game saw a 486% increase in new players this week. The company adds that the number of players on Steam peaked at 690,000 active players in total.
The tutorials were the most played content in the entire game (obviously due to the massive increase in new players), with the Taego and Erangel maps being the most popular.
Krafton celebrates this achievement by rewarding players with special content, as long as they play for at least one hour between January 27 and 30. Anyone who logs in before February 17 will also receive the new Orbital Vanguard skins.
Why not play? It's free
There were already signs that adopting a free-to-play model was beneficial to PUBG from the start. The number of concurrent players doubled after the change and while some players who paid full price for the game initially objected, those same players were offered automatic access to Battlegrounds Plus.
As for why it was so successful, well, the obvious answer is that it's now free. Players are much more willing to try the game to see if they like it without spending €30.
It also makes sense, as rival battle royale games like Fortnite, Call of Duty: Warzone, and Apex Legends are also free to play. These games simply became more attractive because players never had to spend money just to play them.
PUBG is by no means the first premium game to switch to a free-to-play model after launch and reap the benefits. Fortnite did the exact same thing, adopting the model once the battle royale aspect of the game proved to be the most popular.
Although PUBG and Krafton enjoy this new popularity, being free cannot be its only merit. They will still have to offer meaningful content and a solid gaming experience to retain players, otherwise they will abandon it in favor of other free games.