History Main / BattleRoyaleGame

In the late 2010s, however, this concept became the biggest new video game craze to hit the industry due to the shift it made to CompetitiveMultiplayer. Inspired by the film adaptation of the aforementioned ''Battle Royale'', it started as a mod in ''VideoGame/{{ARMA}}'', but the concept expanded into other games, and by 2017, became ''the'' dominant trend in video games thanks to the overwhelming popularity of ''VideoGame/PlayerunknownsBattlegrounds'', which itself was quickly surpassed by ''VideoGame/{{Fortnite}}''.

The Battle Royale genre has its roots in one of the earliest multiplayer modes, the ''Death Match'', where the winning condition are the same - be the last one standing. However Death Match games, being from the infancy of multiplayer network gaming, are much simpler and do not have all the mentioned features, starting players off with a default weapon and armor and at a predetermined spawn point instead of allowing players to choose their starting point by means of parachuting out of an airborne transport and starting them off unarmed and vulnerable. Lastly, there is usually no advancing wall of doom mechanic or time limit, the game round only ends when there's only one player left - in practice, this was not a problem as the player count would usually be quite low (''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'', the game that introduced the concept of death matches to the world, had a maximum headcount of 4), largely due to the limitation of computing power of servers and the low network speeds back in the days.

* ''Knives Out'' by [=NetEase=] is one of the first PUBG Mobile clones, with 100-player lobbies landing on an island and battling to be the last team alive. Has a Japan-only UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch port, owing to the [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff popularity of the game in the country]].

* ''[=SOS=]'' (no relation to the UsefulNotes/SuperNintendo game ''VideoGame/{{SOS}}'') was a short-lived game that relied on the spectating audience's participation to decide which players should receive air drops with boons, or get hindered instead.

* ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOps4'' features the "Blackout" mode. In what is easily the largest map in all of COD history, players find themselves traveling through familar locations like Nuketown and Verruckt. On top of finding weapons and armor to defend themselves, players have access to numerous military vehicles like helicopters. Some areas even feature zombies that can drop equipment when killed.

* ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyModernWarfare2019'' added a free-to-play battle royale mode called ''Call of Duty: Warzone'' on March 10th, 2020, which operates in a manner similar to ''Apex Legends'', with three-man squads that can revive one another if downed. If you die, you are sent to a "gulag" and have a chance to respawn by defeating one other dead player in a shooting duel, and you can also purchase revive kits with in-game currency in stores located in the arena.
* ''VideoGame/CounterStrike: Global Offensive'' added a Battle Royale mode by the end of 2018 called the "Danger Zone". In "Danger Zone", one can collect money from boxes or completing objectives such as rescuing hostages, which then it can be used to request weapon delivery based on the accumulated money, and in team of two, can respawn as long as the other team member alive. Instead of an encroaching circle acting as a time limit to finish the match, the game map was split into several hexagonal tiles, with certain areas of the tiles being "shut off" as the match continued.

** ''VideoGame/FZero99'' involves 99 players duking it out in the original SNES version of ''VideoGame/FZero''. Players can be KO-ed by crashing into obstacles and/or being bumped into by other players too often or racing too poorly, as the game gradually filters out the players in the last few places. That said, since it's still a RacingGame, eliminating other players is not necessary to win, you just need to cross the finish line on the final lap before anyone else (it's possible, and in fact common, to take 1st place without destroying another player).

** ''VideoGame/FZero99'' involves 99 players duking it out in the original SNES version of ''VideoGame/FZero''. Players can be KO-ed by crashing into obstacles and/or being bumped into by other players too often or racing too poorly, as the game gradually filters out the players in the last few places.

** ''VideoGame/FZero99'' involves 99 players duking it out in the original SNES version of ''VideoGame/FZero''.

* There is the ''99'' series of battle royale games made available to those who subscribe to the Nintendo Switch Online service. Three of these were developed by {{Creator/Arika}}, and one of the by Creator/NintendoSoftwareTechnology. These titles take classic games and give it a new twist to make them work in a battle royale format.

* ''VideoGame/{{Agario}}'', being the original and the oldest IoGame, added a shrinking circle mode in 2018, while changing little else about its iconic gameplay.
* ''VideoGame/ApexLegends'' is set in the VideoGame/{{Titanfall}} universe bringing elements of the HeroShooter with 60 players divided into squads of three characters known as Legends, each of which have unique abilities. Players also have access to LeParkour abilities, although they are scaled back from the ''Titanfall'' games for reasons of balance.
* {{Creator/Arika}}, developers of ''VideoGame/TetrisTheGrandMaster'' and ''VideoGame/StreetFighterEX'', have gotten into the business of producing battle royales based on classic games.

* ''VideoGame/DeceiveInc'' combines the genre with a SocialDeductionGame. Here, players are spies on a mission to retrieve a MacGuffin, and must use HolographicDisguise{{s}} to blend in with the [=NPCs=] and complete the mission. However, only one spy can get the paycheck--as such, players must also track each other down to eliminate competition.

* ''VideoGame/DeceiveInc'' combines the genre with a SocialDeductionGame. Here, players are spies on a mission to retrieve a MacGuffin, and must use HolographicDisguise{{s}} to blend in with the NPCs and complete the mission. However, only one spy can get the paycheck--as such, players must also track each other down to eliminate competition.

* ''VideoGame/PlayerunknownsBattlegrounds'' became the TropeCodifier of the genre and found a sizable playerbase from the at the time novel premise of a large WideOpenSandbox ([=PUBG=]'s initial map, Erangel, is a fairly realistically modeled 8x8 km island) shooter and freeform large scale (up to 100 players to a match) combat on the harder side of the FacklerScaleOfFPSRealism, showing its hereitage from ''VideoGame/{{ARMA}}'' mods, offering a large and varied arsenal of weapons, loads of GunAccessories to stick onto them, and vehicles. It launched the Battle Royale genre into the limelight and made the world take notice, in spite of the ObviousBeta state it launched into on Steam's Early Access.

A Battle Royale is defined as numerous characters fighting each other [[ThereCanBeOnlyOne until only one remains victorious]]. The concept is as old as time and has been depicted in various media through the years, with the Japanese novel ''Literature/BattleRoyale'' becoming the TropeNamer.

* Those who are killed are out of the match for good, though some games has a revival or ComebackMechanic that allows killed players to rejoin the game, usually the squad based ones. Playing in squad often put downed players in a bleedout state where they can be revived before being killed for good, either from [[KickThemWhileTheyAreDown additional sustained attack]] or bleedout.
* The match itself is regulated with a time limit that will eventually guarantee a victor. The time limit is usually an AdvancingWallOfDoom in the form of an enclosing circle of fire, energy, electricity, deadly fog, or what have you. As the maps are few, but extremely large, the enclosing circle centers on randomly-determined regions of the map.