The available safe area of the game's map decreases in size over time, directing surviving players into an ever-tightening space to force encounters.

[6] A plane will fly over various parts of the playable map occasionally at random, or wherever a player uses a flare gun, and drop a loot package, containing items which are typically unobtainable during normal gameplay.

[12][13] The DayZ mod caught his interest, both as a realistic military simulation and its open-ended gameplay, and he started playing around with a custom server, learning programming as he went along.

[12] Sony Online Entertainment (now the Daybreak Game Company) had become interested in Greene's work, and brought him on as a consultant to develop on H1Z1, licensing the battle royale idea from him.

[23] Greene stated that many of these developers were voluntarily putting in longer work hours into the game due to their dedication to the project, and not by any mandate from himself or Bluehole's management.

[14][24] In addition to Bluehole, Greene also credits Bohemia Interactive, the developers of ARMA and DayZ, for support with motion capture animations via their Prague studio.

PUBG Corporation continued the development of the game and its marketing and growth, opening an office in the United States with plans for future ones in Europe and Japan.

The developer team playtested architecture features and random item placement systems, looking at both how close-quarters encounters went and open terrain areas.

[6] During early access, additional maps were planned, such as one set on a fictional island in the Adriatic Sea that included snow-covered Yugoslavian territories.

[11] The freefall from an airplane at the start of each match was a new feature for the genre, encouraging strategy between staying with the pack of players or seeking out one's own route for a better chance at finding good loot.

[41] In May 2018, PUBG Corporation disabled the ability to trade skins on the Steam Marketplace as they found that players were still abusing the system by selling them for monetary value through unofficial third-party platforms.

[6][14][13] Bluehole used closed alpha and beta periods with about 80,000 players to gauge initial reaction to the gameplay and adjust balance prior to a wider release.

[14][48] Just prior to the early access phase on Steam, Bluehole opened a few servers and invited some popular live streamers of similar games to try it out as to start gaining interest.

[56] However, the China Audio-Video and Digital Publishing Association issued a statement in October 2017 that discouraged battle royale-style games, stating that they are too violent and deviate from Chinese values of socialism, deeming it harmful to young consumers.

[61] Despite the lack of a Chinese publisher prior to the Tencent deal, players in China had found ways to acquire and play the game through Steam via proxies and other networking tricks.

[62] To address it, PUBG Corporation planned to add maximum client ping limits for servers which can reduce the issues with latency problems and prevent some of the cheating that has occurred.

[63] Tencent has also helped by identifying and reporting around 30 software programs to Chinese police that can be used to cheat in PUBG, leading to over a hundred arrests by the beginning of 2018.

The version was meant to be played in regions where the game's minimum specifications may be difficult for average players to achieve, with a beta launch first releasing in Thailand in January 2019, and in Europe that October.

Bihary said they have given PUBG a "white glove" treatment, and for the Xbox One port, they have provided services from their advanced technology group and time and support from The Coalition, another of Microsoft Studios' subsidiaries.

[78] Kim also stated that the team was interested in cross-platform play between the Windows and console versions, but did not anticipate this as a release feature, as they need to determine how to mitigate the advantage keyboard and mouse-using players would have over those using controllers.

[85][86][87] In an interview shortly after Gamescom, Greene said that their deal with Microsoft did not exclude a PlayStation 4 port, but that their focus at the time was only on the Windows and Xbox One version, given the small size of their team.

[89] The PlayStation 4 version of the game includes platform-exclusive customization items, specifically the outfit of Nathan Drake from the Uncharted series, and Ellie's backpack from The Last of Us.

[43][115][116] Greene said that while he had envisioned the battle royale format to be a spectator sport since his ARMA II mod, their approach to making PUBG an esport would be a matter of taking "baby steps".

Ahead of the game's Taego expansion in July 2021, Krafton released another live-action short called "Ground Zero", featuring Ma Dong-seok (aka Don Lee).

[138] Data by SteamSpy showed that Battlegrounds had surpassed long-standing popular titles in concurrent player count on Steam, such as Fallout 4 and Grand Theft Auto V, eventually overtaking Dota 2, the most played game on the platform for years, in August 2017.

[139][140] The following month, the game had its peak concurrent player count reach over 1.3 million, surpassing Dota 2's all-time record of 1.29 set in March 2016.

[148] Greene himself believed that the strong growth was buoyed by non-traditional promotional channels like Twitch streamers and other content creators, which they have since worked to introduce new gameplay elements ahead of public release.

[261] PUBG Corporation later filed a lawsuit against Epic Games Korea in January 2018, alleging that Fortnite Battle Royale was infringing the copyright of Battlegrounds.

[272] In March 2019, Battlegrounds was banned in the Indian state of Gujarat after the local government decided the game was too addictive and an unnecessary distraction during exam season.

A meeting was held on July 30, 2020, between PTA and legal representatives of Proxima Beta, who addressed the queries raised by the authority and emphasized on continued engagement and a comprehensive control mechanism.