The latest entry in the Battle Royale-like genre continues to top Steam’s best-seller chart.
Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds has zoomed past 1 million copies sold on Steam after only 16 days since launching onto Steam’s Early Access portal for unfinished games, according to developer Bluehole. The online game has 100 players joining a server on an island and tasks you with surviving. You can collect weapons, armor, and other items, and the last player standing wins. This is a genre that has picked up a lot of momentum recently thanks to the ongoing success of Daybreak Game Company’s H1Z1: King of the Kill. But now Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds is working to supplant that as one of the most-played games on Steam (beyond Valve’s Dota 2 or Counter-Strike: Global Offensive).
Brendan “Playerunknown” Greene helped define this genre when he first made mods for the military simulation Arma that borrowed the structure of the Japanese Battle Royale films and book. Since then, these kinds of games have steadily grown in popularity. The recent explosion in active players for King of the Kill came once that game started getting a lot of attention on video sites like Twitch.
But now Battlegrounds seems poised to take the bulk of that audience.
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“We couldn’t have reached this milestone without the dedication of our players and we are truly humbled by their passionate response,” said Greene. “As we move to make improvements and deliver new content we will actively engage this growing fan base.”
Bluehole hasn’t finished Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds. The game is still in Steam’s Early Access portal, and it will likely remain a part of that program for the next few months. This should give the developer ample opportunity to respond to player wishes and to add new features. With the game reaching 89,000 simultaneous players on Steam, Bluehole should have no trouble getting feedback.
