The answer is March 19th 2018. On this date, PUBG Mobile made its debut on iOS and Android across most of the globe, starting what would be one of the largest mobile shooter releases ever. The game was developed by LightSpeed & Quantum Studio in combination with PUBG Studios, while being published through regional publishing groups, including Tencent Games, Krafton, and VNG Games. The game exceeded expectations for a phone-based battle royale, only taking one month to reach over 100 million downloads! As of January 2026, PUBG Mobile is still one of the biggest mobile titles in the genre, with approximately 1.75 billion lifetime downloads and more than $15 billion in total revenue.

PUBG Mobile's worldwide release on March 19th 2018 is also worthwhile to note due to the unusual launch strategy employed at the time. Instead of releasing iOS first and delaying the release of Android, or the other way around, the game was launched on both platforms at once. This allowed for early momentum and made the launch seem more like one large event, rather than separating both user bases into two different user bases. The technical requirements to run PUBG Mobile were also reasonable at that time - iDevices required iOS 9.0 or later, and Android devices had to run Android 5.0 or higher.

Prior to the worldwide launch, PUBG tested the market with a "soft launch" in Canada, and using an English version of the Chinese build called “PUBG: Exhilarating Battlefield.” The original release build on China servers went live on February 9th 2018. Tencent and PUBG Studios utilized the soft launch to conduct stress tests on the servers, finalize localization, and ensure that touch controls worked properly off of the Chinese mainland. By the time March 19 rolled around most of the last minute issues had been worked out.

Platform	Launch Date	Notes
iOS (World Wide)	March 19, 2018	Available on launch alongside Android
Android (World Wide)	March 19, 2018	Requires Android 5.0 or later
China (Exciting Battlefield)	February 9, 2018	An early version of the game
PUBG Mobile KR	June 2018	Specialty version for Korea/Japan
PUBG Mobile VN	January 2019	Localized version for Vietnamese players

PUBG Mobile Release Timeline

To get a complete picture of when did PUBG Mobile launch you must look at the overall timeline. PUBG: Battlegrounds was first released on PC through Steam Early Access in March 2017. Brendan "PlayerUnknown" Greene developed the game and Bluehole (now Krafton) published it. In its first year, it sold over 25 million copies and solidified the typical modern battle royal setup including: 100 players, single large map, items scavenged from various locations and a blue zone that shrunk to drive combat until 1 player or team was left.

An explosive launch of the PC version guaranteed a mobile version would follow. On the heels of its partnership with PUBG Studios, Tencent's LightSpeed & Quantum Studio was reportedly able to accomplish the mobile version of the game in about four months, which is certainly an aggressive timeframe for a title of this size. Much of that optimization was accomplished through heavy optimization using Unreal Engine 4 for mobile hardware. On February 9, 2018, the Chinese market received two distinct versions — "Exhilarating Battlefield," produced by LightSpeed & Quantum, and "PUBG Army Attack," sometimes referred to as PUBG Mobile: Marching, produced by TiMi Studio Group. The latter leaned much more towards an arcade combat concept, including ships at sea as the main battlefield. Collectively, these two Chinese releases garnered 75 million pre-registrations and took the two highest positions on China’s iOS download charts at launch.

Since the global launch of PUBG Mobile on March 19, 2018, a number of regional versions have been developed on top of the global build. PUBG Mobile KR launched in June 2018 for players from South Korea and Japan. The next regional release was on January 2019 with PUBG Mobile VN for Vietnam via VNG Games. Originally, India utilized the global build; however, after the September 2020 ban due to geopolitical issues, the nation subsequently developed Battleground Mobile India, or BGMI, which was released in May 2021 with Krafton publishing directly in India.

Regional Builds for PUBG Mobile

Historically, the global standard build of PUBG Mobile was released by Krafton, and currently many releases are published by Tencent Games under the Level Infinite brand. However, not all regions, and as can be seen specifically between the Chinese versions and the global version, have the same build. Content rules, monetization methods, server operations and even some gameplay elements can differ depending upon the region where the game is played.

China provides the most prominent example of this distinction. While PUBG Mobile did not receive permission to be published there in its original form, Tencent fractured off that portion of the game and reintroduced it in May 2019 as Game For Peace (和平精英) with less violence than PUBG and its original incarnation. Blood effects were removed in addition to the elimination of dead bodies having fallen to the ground, amongst a multitude of other ways that the game was altered to comply with National Press and Publication Administration regulations. The name of the game in China was subsequently changed to Peacekeeper Elite in 2020 and exists as the only legal means for playing a PUBG-like game within the country.

The process for India was messy; after the Tencent-managed version was made illegal in 2020, the game was deleted from Indian app stores. Krafton made changes to the publisher's list, and brought it back in 2021 under BGMI, where they marketed it as a locally-operated product. In 2022 BGMI was again suspended for a second time when Krafton was accused of allowing user data access through Chinese servers. Krafton and the Indian government resolved their dispute and announced a 10 month trial period of BGMI's reintegration into the Indian app store in May 2023. BGMI has become an important esports title in the region since it has returned.

PUBG Mobile KR is played in Korea and Japan and is subject to its own content update schedule and regional rating guidelines that are different from the global update schedule and rating guidelines. In Vietnam, the game is distributed under the title PUBG Mobile VN through a Vietnamese publishing partner, commonly referred to as VNG Games, who manages both local servers as well as local tournament operation outside of the PUBG Mobile Global ecosystem. ## The Game's Release

PUBG Mobile started out on March 19, 2018, with only Erangel. This was the original 8 × 8 km map located on a fictional Russian island; there were forests, open grasslands, towns, beaches, and the very well-known Sosnovka Military Base. The core loop of battle royale was already present in its completeness: 100 players jumping out of a plane, without gear other than cosmetic gear, looting buildings or contested areas, and playing in an ever-contracting zone that ultimately lasted about 30 minutes per game.

At launch, players could play solo, duo, or four-player squads and there were options to use either FIRST PERSON or THIRD PERSON perspective. What set the mobile version apart from PC, though, was that there were some platform-specific changes implemented. These included a customizable touch HUD, aim assist specifically designed for touchscreens, an auto-loot system that would automatically collect gear according to your preferences, and the addition of a larger number of bots in the early matches; these helped to facilitate onboarding for new players. Additionally, daily missions, crews, and login rewards were all available from launch to help casual players continue to return to the game.

Early on, performance was struggling. Most mid-range devices were unable to run at 30 fps, and budget Android phones often had texture popping-in and extremely short draw distances, while also often having significant drops in frame rates when there were a lot of players in a small area. Despite this, however, the launch build was a truly amazing technical achievement for a project developed in a short time of approximately four months. Since it launched in March 2018, PUBG Mobile has evolved immensely by enhancing its countries of maps, game updates, graphics, and overall esports support. The map pool expanded more rapidly than any other game mode; as soon as Erangel was released, we received:

• Miramar, an 8×8 km desert map introduced in August 2018 that has long sight lines, vehicle rotations, and highly sniper-related gameplay.

• Sanhok, a 4×4 km jungle map introduced in November 2018 that is fast-paced and has a lot of action compared to bigger maps.

• Livik, a mobile-only 2×2 km map designed for quick matches, hot drops, and a good place to grind rank, which was introduced in May 2020.

• Talgo, a Korean-themed 8×8 km map released in September 2021, had dynamic weather and gave players the ability to self-revive.

With the addition of maps came the growth of frame rate support for devices- from a frame rate of 30 on many devices, to where now there is support for 60, or more typically 90 frames per second, up to 120 frames per second on current mobile flagship devices like the iPhone 13 or high-refresh Samsung Galaxy devices. The addition of ray tracing effects to premium devices was rolled out in 2022. By 2024, PUBG Mobile was closing the visual gap with its PC version beyond what many individuals thought possible. Also, when comparing the increase in improved battery life/thermal performance, it was essential to the player experience when playing for extended periods of ranked gameplay sessions.

The same way that the esports side of this game has developed in the last six years has been quite astounding. In 2019, PUBG Mobile began as small local competitions and at the end of 2020, there was a total cash prize pool of 6 million dollars with the creation of the PUBG Mobile Global Championship (PMGC). There will be two PMGO (PUBG Mobile Global Open) seasons taking place in 8 different regions, all culminating in a Global Championship event in Türkiye and a World Cup event in Riyadh. Each team now has a well-defined team structure that includes an IGL (in-game leader), fraggers, support players, and anchors. The level of strategic depth is much closer to the level of established PC eSports than it has been in earlier competitive PUBG Mobile history. As of mid-2025, PUBG Mobile is reported to have 112.9 million monthly active users and 24.3 million daily active users across all distributions worldwide.

FAQ About PUBG Mobile's Release Date

When did PUBG Mobile launch globally?

PUBG Mobile's global launch date was March 19, 2018. Mobile games were released worldwide (with the exception of China) on iOS/Android's official app ecosystem at that time and in most cases within the same day, although there were some minor course corrections due to app store reviews and/or regional compliance issues. For example the European Union needed time for histrionics related to GDPR; however, in most areas those regions functioned within a couple of days. China is the notable exception as they did not authorize a full release of PUBG Mobile (a true mobile version). Instead, they started with an app called "Exhilarating Battlefield," which launched the week of February 26, 2018, until distributing "Games for Peace" beginning May 2019. #### When Did PUBG Mobile Launch Versus BGMI

PUBG Mobile launched well before Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI); the global version of PUBG Mobile launched on March 19, 2018 and remained available to players in India until the government banned it on September 2, 2020. Krafton announced BGMI on May 6, 2021 and opened pre-registration for it on Google Play on May 18, 2021, meaning that BGMI was mostly built to replace the entire player base of PUBG Mobile in India — with virtually the same base gameplay. PUBG Mobile is run separately from BGMI and does not use the Tencent-run global infrastructure for its distribution and management.

Are PUBG Mobile and PUBG the Same

Not exactly. PUBG Mobile is a mobile version of PUBG: Battlegrounds and uses almost the same base gameplay structure for the battle royale game mode — 100-player matches, decreasing zone size, parachute drop, and finding weapons on the ground. However, the way that players experience these mechanics are considerably different between the two. The PC and console versions of PUBG are much better in terms of graphics, provide better control to the player (e.g., mouse and keyboard), and have their own competitive ecosystem to rank players within each platform. PUBG Mobile does not deliver the same level of graphic quality, has auto-loot capabilities, allows players to aim through the gyroscope, has HUD layouts made specifically for touchscreen devices, and has its own unique system for progression, including its own version of the Royale Pass. Additionally, matchmaking in PUBG Mobile is completely separate from matchmaking in the other platforms and progression in the two platforms does not carry over or match between the two platforms (e.g., a player has a different rank or has purchased different cosmetic items in both platforms). Publis publisher (Krafton) has indicated the company envisions linking progress across platforms but for the time being has not enabled that to happen.

All In All

So, if you just want the straightforward answer, PUBG Mobile launched on March 19, 2018 on iOS and Android in various global locations and by launching the app, it set forth not only the launch of PUBG on mobile devices but also established that a free-to-play battle royale can achieve a successful scale on mobile devices and eventually lead to the creation of the entire relevant esports ecosystems for free-to-play battle royale games. Most players in the rest of the world will continue to use the standard global version of the game; in China, players will be playing Peacekeeper Elite, and in India, players will be playing BGMI as the native regional version of the game. If you would like to try to understand which version makes sense for your local region in 2026, understanding when the original version of each game launched will assist in grasping how each has become separate and distinct from one another today.