PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is now free on iOS, Android—and dang, it’s solid

The competition for the world's biggest "battle royale" video game got even hotter on Monday with a not-too-surprising announcement: PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds now has a free mobile version available across the world. Downloads are now live for all iOS 9.0 and later devices and most Android 5.1.1-and-above devices with at least 2GB RAM.

Based on our preliminary tests of the live American version, this famously unoptimized game is way more playable—even on older, legacy devices—than it has any right to be.

Monday's news follows last week's surprising announcement that the similar shooting game Fortnite: Battle Royale had already begun rolling out beta invites to its own mobile version. Unlike Epic Games' product, however, PUBG Mobile requires no closed-beta invites.

PUBG Mobile itself was no secret, having received a rollout on Chinese iOS and Android devices in February—and that launch decision may have to do with PUBG's publisher, Tencent, operating in China. That was followed by a "soft" rollout of PUBG Mobile last week, which was only pushed to Canadian Android smartphone and tablet users.

If you haven't guessed, PUBG Mobile pulls off its "free-to-play" price point by selling in-game currency for real money, which can be used to unlock loot boxes. If you want to unlock a certain cosmetic item for your PUBG soldier, you can grind through various in-game challenges for a slow shot at the perfect loot box or you can spend more money to more quickly access intriguing outfits, hats, and the like. As much as I detest the predatory, slot machine-like system of loot boxes, I find it's at least more forgivable for a wholly free game.

Victory within my mobile reach

Especially for a game that you would not be crazy to assume won't even work on your phone. Nobody wants to pay the PC and console price of $29.99 only to find PUBG Mobile doesn't hold up to mobile-processor scrutiny.

Before I began typing this report, I set my current Android device to download the game's 975MB installer—and I wasn't even sure if the game would load. The reason being: I'm using my backup phone thanks to my primary device having its battery utterly die. (Thanks a lot, HTC 10.)

I had to test PUBG Mobile on a once-premium Nexus 6, which Google doesn't even support with official Android updates anymore. Turns out, this was a great way to emphasize just how surprisingly optimized this game appears to be. On my late-2014 phone, PUBG Mobile ran smoothly enough for me to play with something resembling proficiency. I'd compare the game's frame-rate performance to the uneven stuff found on the game's current "early access" Xbox One build, though the above gallery shows off how atrocious of a visual downgrade you can expect to get when working at such a comparable level.

(For those who've never played battle-royale games like PUBG: the standard game dumps 100 online players onto a single island with zero weapons or armor. They must scour the island in search of weapons, armor, items, and vehicles so that they can move toward a randomly chosen central point of the island; outside of that central safety zone is an increasingly growing field of poison gas, so you're forced to run—and to kill other competitors along the way. The last person or team standing wins.)

PUBG Mobile is at its best when it automates the game's usual management tasks so that players can focus on movement and gun aiming without having to fiddle with menus. Run up to a door and a convenient text prompt pops up to open or close it. Walk over anything that improves your current build—meaning armor boosts, health pickups, any weapons when you're running empty, or upgrades and ammo to anything you have equipped—and your character will automatically pick them up. Other items that aren't obvious upgrades (new clothing items, different weapon choices) will appear as white boxes to be tapped.

Every primary "need this at all times" function has a clear place on the screen for tapping, mostly at the lower-right end of the screen. Jumping, crouching, going fully prone, shooting, and pulling up a gun's scope all get dedicated buttons, and a map button is also easily accessible. (When you get health pickups, those will get dedicated bottom-of-screen buttons, as well.) The bottom-left of the screen includes a virtual run-and-strafe joystick, while dragging your right finger anywhere in open space will work like aiming an FPS game's mouse.

All of these functions change when you hop into a vehicle—at which point, you even get a convenient "switch seats" button for the sake of quick "aghghghgh we're getting shot at" moments with teammates.

My first session went surprisingly well, though my familiarity with the game's fictional, default island of Erangel and my knowledge of best PUBG practices didn't hurt. Still, I was able to maneuver around, gather gear, find teammates (thanks to clearly marked UI), ferry them around in my four-wheeler, and even rack up three clean kills (some blind-fired, some scoped) before I eventually got taken out by a three-strong squad who'd taken higher ground. Our team had to settle for second place. This good first-game performance may very well be thanks to other players being wholly new to the mobile interface, but I'll continue to assume it's because I'm so great at video games.

I wouldn't dream of calling this a definitive version of PUBG. And further testing will be required for fans to suss out exactly what they're losing in this translation (such as physics effects, how cars bounce down hills, true precision gunplay, or excessive auto-aim assists). But for those moments on the go when I have 20 minutes to kill and access to a battery charger and decent reception, I'm totally sold on what already exists in the game's first day of "official" worldwide release.

Listing image by Tencent / PUBG Corp.