History YMMV / PlayerunknownsBattlegrounds

** Despite a noticeable downgrade in visuals, the UsefulNotes/PlayStation4 version runs and plays well. In turn, this leads to...

* PortingDisaster: At release, performance was mediocre on the UsefulNotes/XboxOne X, and flat-out awful on the two earlier models of the console. Patches have since brought performance on the One X up to being generally quite solid once matches have actually gotten underway, but performance on the older models remains pretty poor.

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: Has been subject to this in an ''incredibly'' short amount of time. As countless new entries into the "battle royale" genre -- most notably ''VideoGame/{{Fortnite}}'' -- are released, ''PUBG'' is finding it has little to make it stand out ''within'' that genre. Many of the assets used are pre-made and store-bought, and its aesthetic is one of generic "realism". [[DownplayedTrope That said]], it's still second only to ''Fortnite'' in popularity within the genre (in USA at least, in other regions like Asia it's the other way around), mostly due to being the TropeMaker[=/=]TropeCodifier and has less complicated gameplay.

** The bridge is known for having a lot of unfortunate incidents happen on it, including LetsPlay/PewDiePie saying a [[NWordPrivileges racist slur]] on a livestream whilst on it, which pretty much killed the bridge's reputation right away. Any picture or video of the bridge is now automatically associated to [=PewDiePie=] and what he did on it.

* NightmareFuel: The game lets you experience what it's like to be on ''both'' sides of HuntingTheMostDangerousGame, typically at multiple points within the same match, and it is a recipe for {{paranoia|Fuel}}. Thanks to both the game's [[FacklerScaleOfFPSRealism emphasis on realism]] and the enormous size of its maps, hearing a gunshot is a recipe for {{paranoia|Fuel}} as you wonder where those shots came from, whether or not the person who made them can see you and shoot you, and if so, whether or not you're in any position to hit them back. What's more, many of the game's weapons have ranges of hundreds of meters and optics to make the best use of them, so you're not necessarily safe even if you can't see your enemy unaided. Conversely, if it's quiet nearby, you never know if you're alone or if [[ItsQuietTooQuiet there are other players around watching you, waiting to take that perfect shot]]. It ratchets up as the game goes on and players are herded together by the shrinking circle. On the other hand, this makes it all the more {{cathar|sisFactor}}tic when the shoe is on the other foot and you've got another player in your sights without them knowing it.

** Another debate was whether or not PUBG was allowed a GOTY nomination for The Game Awards since it was still in early access at the time.
** The introduction of story elements, which were mocked in some places for trying to put a DarkerAndEdgier spin on a game most well-known for wacky hijinks. (Gaming website Rock Paper Shotgun even gently mocked it when Playerunknown himself, Brendan Greene, said he thought their nickname for the game, "Plunkbat", was "[[{{Hypocrite}} trying to be edgy]]". On the contrary, RPS favours "Plunkbat" because it's an [[InherentlyFunnyWords inherently funny word]] and also [[RuleOfFunny claims the game's plot is actually a stag party]] that's [[GoneHorriblyWrong gone horribly, horribly wrong]].)
** The fact that the free-to-play mobile version is getting more content, usually DenserAndWackier, and how the mobile version eventually getting a full-fledged sequel.

** To avoid this conflict in PC, PUBG has a special mode for competitive matches which adjusts the circles (getting rid of the [[ScrappyMechanic red zone]]) and loot spawn (no more [[PurposelyOverpowered flare guns]]). However, this leads to the question if the [[https://www.redbull.com/us-en/pubg-esports-casual-differences competitive scene could alienate casual players]].
** PlayedStraight on mobile, where competitive matches are essentially the same as casual ones. More competitive players often play in the more realistic FirstPersonPerspective, but to appeal to the more casual fanbase, PUBG Mobile esports is played in [[ThirdPersonShooter Third-Person Perspective]].

* ContestedSequel: ''PUBG New State'', well liked by some for it's somewhat feeling fresh, and taking less storage space, but some other take issue with [[RealIsBrown drab]] [[DarkerAndEdgier atmosphere]], drought of content, and reliance on paid loot boxes for its exclusive cosmetics.

** Scattered all across the map are small storage huts, while only containing a drop or two, they are often used as cover for people either caught out in a wide field, or very infrequently, a camping spot for ambushes. Due to the callouts of several popular streamers, those huts are often referred to many players as "FUCCBOI Sheds" or other variations of "Camper Sheds".
** The frying pan is commonly called "butt-pan" because it drapes over the player's lower back and provides a little protection against back attacks; in fact, players value it for its defensive capabilities far more than its intended use as a melee weapon. Another common name for it is "Level 4 Armor".

** Due to the vaguely-Hispanic feel of Miramar, the wall bordering the north side of the map has been cheekily named [[UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump "Trump's Wall"]].

* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: The game, made by an Irish lead developer assisted by a Korean developer, is popular worldwide, especially in Japan, where shooters and PC gaming in general weren't a mainstream genre and platform there. Also China, where in response to the many issues, Tencent took over, made a mobile version that was, feature-wise, better, and made it even more popular worldwide due to highly increased accessibility.
** The game, particularly ''Mobile'', despite having its popularity in the West waning around 2018 due to ''Videogame/{{Fortnite}}'' stealing the thunder, performs strongly in South and Southeast Asian countries, with India, Indonesia and Thailand having some of the game’s biggest playerbases. This has been attributed to the fact that ''Battlegrounds'' is available on the Google Play Store while ''Fortnite'' isn’t, allowing ''Battlegrounds'' to gain an edge in regions where Android devices eclipse iOS ones in popularity. The infamy of ''Epic Games Store'' worldwide also helps with the popularity of ''PUBG'' in the aforementioned regions.

* HilariousInHindsight: As mentioned multiple times, Bluehole accused Fortnite of ripping off PUBG since a lot of that game’s elements are similar to PUBG’s. Come the release of Sanhok, and PUBG introduced the event pass that works very similar to Fortnite’s in where you level up tiers to get cosmetic items.

** "E-SPORTS READY" - a mockery of the studio's decision to host an official e-sports event for a game that ''isn't even out of early access'' during Gamescom 2017, which predictably ran into bugs, glitches, cheap tactics and unfortunate poor camera work during the first few days of said event.

** The bridge is known for having a lot of unfortunate incidents happen on it, including LetsPlay/{{Pewdiepie}} saying a [[NWordPrivileges racist slur]] on a livestream whilst on it, which pretty much killed the bridge's reputation right away. Any picture or video of the bridge is now automatically associated to Pewdiepie and what he did on it.
* MorePopularSpinOff: Globally, PUBG Mobile has a larger fanbase than the base PC game since it's free-to-play, has user-friendly mechanics like respawning and non-verbal pinging, runs well on most smartphones and has tie-ins with mainstream properties like ''Franchise/MonsterVerse'', ''Videogame/ResidentEvil'', ''Series/TheWalkingDead'', and ''WesternAnimation/{{Arcane}}'', among many. As of 2022, [[Creator/TencentGames Lightspeed Studios]], the developer, attempted to catch the same thunder with adapting ''Videogame/ApexLegends'' into mobile platforms.
* ParanoiaFuel: More often than not you'll be left wondering where the ''hell'' did that shot come from... if you don't get your head blown off with the first shot.
** In squad based matches, all alive players, including downed players count as alive. While the chat does say when someone downs or kills someone else, it doesn't indicate what teams the two players are on or how many of their team is alive or downed. You may be stuck alone in a small circle with 5 alive and you won't know if they are all on separate teams or all on one team or you may be in a circle alone with 8 players and not realize that it's 2 teams of 4 players with 3 knocked down a piece.

** PUBG Mobile, made by Lightspeed & Quantum, a developer commissioned by Tencent, is faithful to the source material in addition to adding a lot of new features such as threat compass, level up (to unlock in game currency and matchmaking), more unlockables, and a few additional game modes. It's also free-to-play and averts BribingYourWayToVictory hard. Finally, it runs well on mid to high end smartphones, and Tencent even releases [[https://syzs.qq.com/en/ a preconfigured Android emulator specifically to play this game on PC!]] [[note]]Fair warning though, don't use Google Play if you intend to play on PC due to the emulator app not supporting cloud save. Facebook and Twitter login to save and load account in the same manner as cloud save still can be used though.[[/note]]
** Despite a noticeable downgrade in visuals, the UsefulNotes/{{Playstation4}} version of PUBG runs and plays well. In turn, this leads to...

** Vehicles don't exactly react kindly to geometry that is anything besides flat roads. Even small bumps can send them sailing through the air if you're driving too fast, and a sudden collision of any sort - even brushing a rock - means that odds are, the whole damn thing is [[EveryCarIsAPinto going up in flames with you in it.]] Technically this could be considered realistic, but there are plenty of cases of the vehicles exploding or just flying off at the slightest notion into oblivion; in particularly uneven terrain, they're nothing more than metal deathtraps and pure ShmuckBait because the physics hate them so much. In such a case, this can even be game-ending by no fault of your own if you drop too far outside of the safe zone, happen to find a vehicle, and then have to deal with the terrain in a mad dash for survival.
** The event pass introduced with the release of Sanhok can be seen as this since a lot of its challenges don’t seem to give you the credit properly or are pretty vague on the conditions (such as what mode you need to complete the challenges on). This [[https://www.reddit.com/r/PUBATTLEGROUNDS/comments/8tg8uv/the_complete_list_of_all_battlepass_questrelated/ reddit post]] goes into more detail. Since then, patches were made to fix these issues.

** As a case of [[NeverBringAKnifeToAGunFight never bring a knife to a gun-fight]], melee weapons quickly become underwhelming beyond the start of the game, even though they deal a lot of damage. Each weapon has only one forward attack animation, making it easy for any opponent to move out of range. Additionally, this means even a player with a simple pistol can easily kill you, as you practically have to walk right into their line of fire to get a hit in. Lag issues make this even worse, as the only time you're going to have to conceivably use one is at the start of the game in a high density area, where the servers are most likely to lag. Good luck trying to kill that guy with your crowbar when he's teleporting around and it's impossible to even catch him! The only weapon that avoids this is the frying pan, and that's mainly because of its passive benefit as a shield than its use as a proper weapon.
** The Crossbow. While it is incredibly powerful, it can naturally only fit one bolt at the time and has a very slow reloading animation. Might double as a [[DeathOrGloryAttack high risk / high reward]] weapon, as you can easily kill a player with a well-placed shot, but will leave yourself completely open if you miss. In a game where all other ranged weapons are firearms, that usually means you're dead. Though on a positive side the crossbow is completely silent so even if you miss the other player might not even notice you.
** Pistols are jack-of-all-trades weapons that do not excel at anything in particular and are among the most common weapon spawns. Since submachine guns and assault rifles are superior in close combat and rifles for long-distance fighting, a pistol is usually only a last resort back-up weapon. And it's not just their damage, either; their iron sights are so bad that most players have to hipfire just so they can even see who they're trying to kill, and their sight attachment will only take red dots, which most players find far more useful on any other gun. General player advice is to immediately drop the pistol as soon as you find a "real" gun in order to conserve more carrying space for ammo and healing items. The Glock-18 is the only one that gets any respect, and that's for being the only pistol that can fire full-auto, not because of its damage or anything of that sort.
** A January 2018 update completely {{Nerf}}ed shotguns; while before the playerbase's opinion of them was fairly positive and balanced, after the update they were viewed as complete jokes that couldn't even one-shot someone from point-blank range if they had any kind of armor or helmet on, even the pathetic level 1s. Before the update, their higher damage output made them viable to choose over [=SMGs=] for a close-range weapon, now it means almost anyone will go for the [=SMG=] instead if given the option.
** The Mini-14 has almost never been viewed positively despite being in the game for almost half its existence. At first, it was seen as a pretty okay gun, being a bridge between rifles and snipers with lower damage but faster firing speed and lower bullet drop; the problem was, the [=M16=], despite being an "ordinary" assault rifle, [[OvershadowedByAwesome outclassed it in almost every statistic]], so players had no reason to actually pick it up over the [=M16=]. After the [=M16's=] reign of terror was ended by a {{Nerf}}, the Mini was rather bafflingly given one as well, which turned it into a complete {{joke|Item}}. It's commonly never picked up, as it's considered the "worst of both worlds" between snipers and assault rifles, combining the inability to fire full-auto, which makes it useless at close range, and rarity of attachments, which leads to a lot more time looking for them, of snipers with the significantly lower damage output at range of rifles, which makes it impossible to duel other snipers despite nominally being one.
* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: Has been subject to this in an ''incredibly'' short amount of time: as countless new entries into the "battle royale" genre -- most notably ''VideoGame/{{Fortnite}}'' -- are released, ''PUBG'' is finding it has little to make it stand out ''within'' that genre; many of the assets used are pre-made and store-bought, and its aesthetic is one of generic "realism". [[DownplayedTrope That said]], it's still second only to ''Fortnite'' in popularity within the genre (in USA at least, in other regions like Asia it's the other way around), mostly due to being the TropeMaker[=/=]TropeCodifier and has less complicated gameplay.

** While the game is dangerous enough, there is one place on Erangel that is almost always designated for carnage: '''Military Base'''. The southernmost island of the map houses a massive military base, chock full of dozens upon dozens of mid to high tier weaponry, items and armor. [[ShmuckBait Dropping there is usually a death sentence however, due to three factors]]: one, everyone else is aware of this, meaning that there's almost a guarantee someone else will be there, if not whole teams. Two, the sheer size of the place means that getting everything is impossible, and that someone else could find better stuff than you and easily come kill you. And third, due to being in the southernmost part of the map, if the Play Area is far away it's essentially a death sentence rendering all the looting you did AllForNothing unless you get [[LuckBasedMission very lucky]] and manage to find a ([[RandomNumberGod rare]]) vehicle in the first few minutes.
** Erangel and Miramar both have high risk, high reward spots where it's guaranteed that you ''will'' find more than a few people out to kill you. The School in Erangel and Pecado in Miramar are both smack dab in the middle of the map. It's no coincidence that they're both frequently visited.
** Ironically the Miramar counterpart to the Sosnovka Military Base, Campo Militar, is scarcely visited because ''it's too damn far'', all the way in its own corner in the already massive Miramar.
** Airdrops will turn ''any'' place on the map into this. The drop contains one of several [[GameBreaker incredibly high-powered weapons]]...but to get it, you'll have to fight off several other players who had the same idea to go for it as you. And even if you're the last one standing, there's always the [[ParanoiaFuel possibility]] that someone with a sniper was watching the crate and is just waiting to pick you off once you think it's safe to get it.
* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: After PUBG Mobile added gun loadout to Team Deathmatch, many players said this ruined the game's balance and [[TheyCopiedItSoItSucks just copied the concept from]] ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyMobile''.

* AcceptableTargets:
** Chinese hackers. It's gotten to the point that it's almost guaranteed to have a front page post on the ''PUBG'' sub-reddit complaining about Chinese hackers and to implement region-lock. Unfortunately arguments inevitably leads to UsefulNotes/MisplacedNationalism attacking Chinese players in general, and [[InternetJerk xenophobic comments]].
** The mobile version has the servers split between regions, and of course, harder to cheat (though still possible) due to the nature of mobile OS.

** The game, particularly ''Mobile'', also performs strongly in South and Southeast Asian countries, with India, Indonesia and Thailand having some of the game’s biggest playerbases. This has been attributed to the fact that ''Battlegrounds'' is available on the Google Play Store while ''Fortnite'' isn’t, allowing ''Battlegrounds'' to gain an edge in regions where Android devices eclipse iOS ones in popularity.

* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: The game, made by an Irish lead developer assisted by a Korean developer, is popular worldwide, especially in Japan, where shooters weren't a mainstream genre there. Also China, where in response to the many issues, Tencent took over, made a mobile version that was, feature-wise, better, and made it even more popular worldwide due to highly increased accessibility.

* EightPointEight: IGN gave the Xbox One release (Game Preview Edition) a 5/10, citing numerous bugs and poor framerates, leading to heated debate over whether or not the early access game deserved a review at all yet. Some argue that a game in an unfinished state shouldn't be reviewed in the first place, while others point out that the game is available for purchase in retail stores, and thus customers should be informed to the quality of the game.

* AuthorsSavingThrow:
** The [[https://fix.pubg.com/ "Fix PUBG" campaign]] by the developers, which acknowledged all the issues people had with the game and made it their goal to fix them from August to October 2018. This includes but is not limited to frame drops, cheating, desync, and a bunch of quality-of-life bugs. Players are very happy that the devs are focusing on these fixes instead of trying to force in more content like it felt like they were doing for so long. After efforts to improve the sound failed to impress the player-base, the devs reverted these changes.
** The Vikendi Survival Pass is seen as a massive improvement over the Sanhok pass due to being more rewarding to both owners and non-owners and lasting more than twice as long as the Sanhok pass.
** The Karakin map tries to address players' frustrations on other maps. It's a lot smaller and has only 64 players, meaning matches progress a lot faster, and gets rid of certain ScrappyMechanic[=s=] from the other maps. For example, the "red zone" is replaced with a "black zone" which discourages camping. There are also no grenades, which were usually spammed near the end of a match to get the win, and no fog, which just makes the game harder to play. Some of the complaints about the map while it was on the testing servers, such as the scarce loot and "black zone" sirens, were quickly addressed when it was added to the main game.

** DoubleSubverted on PC. To avoid this conflict, PUBG has a special mode for competitive matches which adjusts the circles (getting rid of the [[ScrappyMechanic red zone]]) and loot spawn (no more [[PurposelyOverpowered flare guns]]). However, this leads to the question if the [[https://www.redbull.com/us-en/pubg-esports-casual-differences competitive scene could alienate casual players]].

* MorePopularSpinOff: Globally, PUBG Mobile has a larger fanbase than the base PC game since it's free-to-play, has user-friendly mechanics like respawning and non-verbal pinging, runs well on most smartphones and has tie-ins with mainstream properties like ''Series/TheWalkingDead'' and ''WesternAnimation/{{Arcane}}''.

** Chinese hackers. It's gotten to the point that it's almost guaranteed to have a front page post on the ''PUBG'' sub-reddit complaining about Chinese hackers and to implement region-lock. Unfortunately arguments inevitably leads to MisplacedNationalism attacking Chinese players in general, and [[InternetJerk xenophobic comments]].

** Chinese hackers. It's gotten to the point that it's almost guaranteed to have a front page post on the ''PUBG'' sub-reddit complaining about Chinese hackers and to implement region-lock.

* AcceptableTargets:
** Chinese hackers. It's gotten to the point that it's almost guaranteed to have a front page post on the ''PUBG'' sub-reddit complaining about Chinese hackers and to implement region-lock.
** The mobile version has the servers split between regions, and of course, harder to cheat (though still possible) due to the nature of mobile OS.

** Chinese hackers. It's gotten to the point that it's almost guaranteed to have a front page post on the ''PUBG'' sub-reddit complaining about Chinese hackers and to implement region-lock. Needless to say, Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment applies here.

** PUBG Mobile, made by Lightspeed & Quantum, a developer commissioned by Tencent, is faithful to the source material in addition to adding a lot of new features such as threat compass, level up (to unlock in game currency and matchmaking), more unlockable, and a few additional game modes. It's also free-to-play and averts BribingYourWayToVictory hard. Finally, it runs well on mid to high end smartphones, and Tencent even releases [[https://syzs.qq.com/en/ a preconfigured Android emulator specifically to play this game on PC!]] [[note]]Fair warning though, don't use Google Play if you intend to play on PC due to the emulator app not supporting cloud save. Facebook and Twitter login to save and load account in the same manner as cloud save still can be used though.[[/note]]

** The introduction of story elements, which were mocked in some places for trying to put a DarkerAndEdgier spin on a game most well-known for wacky hijinks. (Gaming website Rock Paper Shotgun even gently mocked it when Playerunknown himself, Brendan Greene, said he thought the nickname "Plunkbat" was "[[{{Hypocrite}} trying to be edgy]]". For context, RPS favours "Plunkbat" because it's an [[InherentlyFunnyWords inherently funny word]] and also [[RuleOfFunny claims the game's plot is a stag party]] that's [[GoneHorriblyWrong gone horribly wrong]].)

** [[CarePackage Airdrops]] will turn ''any'' place on the map into this. The drop contains one of several [[GameBreaker incredibly high-powered weapons]]...but to get it, you'll have to fight off several other players who had the same idea to go for it as you. And even if you're the last one standing, there's always the [[ParanoiaFuel possibility]] that someone with a sniper was watching the crate and is just waiting to pick you off once you think it's safe to get it.

** Despite noticeable downgrade in visuals, the UsefulNotes/{{Playstation4}} version of PUBG runs and plays well. In turn, this leads to...

* LikeYouWouldReallyDoIt: While it definitely caused backlash as mentioned previously, people didn't really think PUBG Corp was going go through with the lawsuit against Epic Games. Thankfully, the lawsuit got dropped.

* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: The game, made by an Irish lead developer assisted by a Korean developer, is popular worldwide, especially in Japan, where shooters wasn't a mainstream genre there. Also China, where in response to the many issues, Tencent took over, made a mobile version that, feature wise, better, and made it even more popular worldwide due to highly increased accessibility.