# PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds

> A Steam Early Access shooter reached a peak of 3.2 million concurrent players.

- Owner: KRAFTON / PUBG Studios (Bluehole at launch)
- Kind: Game
- Sector: Gaming
- Seed date: 2017-03-23
- Peak proxy date: By end of Jan 2018
- Date basis: Proxy date; not a directly measured attention peak. Dates use the stated precision; chart positions are date anchors.
- Spread Score: 79 (Breakout, provisional), v1.3
- Mechanics: Platform jump, Press loop, Catchphrase, Dupe economy, Controversy

## Summary

PUBG entered Steam Early Access in March 2017 after streamer tests. Gameplay spread on Twitch and YouTube as press covered sales records. Xbox followed before the January 2018 Steam-player peak; KFC promotions and free-to-play came later.

## Timeline

- 2017-03-09 — PC Gamer (YouTube) — PC Gamer published the official trailer and announced a March 23 Early Access release.
- 2017-03-23 — Bluehole / Brendan Greene (Open web) — Bluehole released PUBG for public purchase through Steam Early Access.
- 2017-05-04 — Twitch (Twitch) — Twitch hosted an owner-backed charity invitational featuring European and North American streamer teams.

The full timeline, metrics and sources are on the case page, or via the Pro API (https://howitspread.com/developers).

Canonical URL: https://howitspread.com/cases/pubg-battlegrounds

Cite as: How It Spread (2026). “PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds.” Case HIS-01532. Spread Score v1.3: 79/100. Updated 2026-10-23. https://howitspread.com/id/HIS-01532