Given the ever-increasing competition in the Battle Royale genre, it should come as little surprise to hear that PUBG: Battlegrounds has now gone free-to-play. As such, from this point forward anyone on any platform can simply create a PUBG account and instantly dive into the action.

As a small token of appreciation to veteran players, anyone who has purchased PUBG: Battlegrounds before this point will be granted a variety of cosmetic items, as well as the freshly unleashed Battlegrounds Plus upgrade. The latter offers a 100% experience boost, the ability join ranked matches and create custom games, along with a couple of extra cosmetic items and 1300 coins.

For any new players, however, the Battleground Plus upgrade will cost $13 and will mostly serve as a deterrent for cheating in ranked matches. Whether that will actually work out given PUBG's long-standing issues with cheaters, I have no idea, but I can't say I'm happy to see important features like the ranked mode locked behind a paywall when the same thing in Apex Legends is entirely free.

That little gripe aside, it's also worth mentioning that PUBG: Battlegrounds will be running a variety of events in order to celebrate the launch of the free-to-play version. So if you're planning to stick around and would like some neat costumes to accessorize with, you can find out more about the various events over at the PUBG website.

Have fun, and just for good measure I'll leave you with the brief trailer: