PUBG has sold 70 million copies since 2017

PUBG has surpassed 70 million units sold to date, PUBG Corp. announced today. To celebrate this milestone, the game’s next update will return players to the jungles of Sanhok in PUBG season eight.

Players can preview Update 8.1 a couple of days before the new season is released. The PC test server will become available on July 15, followed by the console test server on July 20. Season eight’s official launch is scheduled for July 22 for PC via Steam and July 30 for Xbox One, PS4, and Stadia.

The jungle destination has been remastered and turned into an overgrown abandoned paradise that’s “leaner, meaner, and more deadly than ever before.” The developers used data and player feedback to rebuild almost every structure, such as trees, rocks, and materials on the map.

Popular locations like Boot Camp, Ruins, Pai Nan, Khao, and Quarry have all received major updates. New locations with hidden gems can also be found around the island, including a new tourist town Getaway and Airfield.

Alongside the Sanhok remaster, Update 8.1’s new additions include:

• The Loot Truck: As these trucks take damage, they will drop some loot and continue on their way. Players persistent enough to destroy the truck will be rewarded with an even bigger cache of weapons and gear for their squad.
• Confiscated Weapons: Players who take down the Loot Truck will be rewarded with fully customized weapons.
• Improved Jerry Cans: Pour gas on the ground to set a fiery trap or toss the whole thing at an enemy and light it up.
• New Ranked Season: The season brings a much-requested change to scoring, with Ranked Point acquisition now taking team placement into account. Additionally, Vikendi has been added to the Ranked map pool.
• Survivor Pass: Payback: Accompanying the latest season is the newest Survivor Pass, which gives players a large number of new skins to earn as they explore the forgotten paradise of Sanhok.

PUBG was launched in 2017 and is considered the pioneer of the battle royale genre. The game is based on mods that were created by Brendan “PlayerUnknown” Greene for other games and were expanded into a full game. The mods were all inspired by the Japanese film Battle Royale released in 2000.

The game made $11 million in the first three days of its Windows early access in March 2017. By the second week of April, just four months after its full release, the game had sold over one million copies.

Of course, sold copies don’t necessarily equate to active players, though. PUBG had over 546,000 concurrent players in June 2020, according to Steam numbers from statistics portal Statista. That’s a fraction of the 3.24 million active player peak the game held in January 2018.