'PlayerUnknown's Battelgrounds' dethrones 'DOTA 2' on Steam

A promotional image for "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds" Facebook/playbattlegrounds

After reaching 800, 000 active players last month, "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds" ("PUGB") this time takes the lead from "Defense of the Ancients 2," ("Dota 2") scoring the highest concurrent player count.

On Sept. 16, "PUBG" broke the record on Steam with 1,332,739 players going online simultaneously and peaking at 1,349,584. "Dota 2" trailed behind with 780,000 and a peak concurrent player count of 784,336. "Counter-Strike: Global Offensive" placed third with 632,880 players online on the same day.

The dethroning of the Valve's "Dota 2" was an all-time record breaker that put "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds" to the number one spot in the digital platform chart. This marked "PUBG" as the most current title that gamers are choosing to play at any time of the day. "Dota 2's" highest concurrent player count was recorded at 1.29 million.

"Dota 2" had been ruling Steam as the top game with the most number of players playing simultaneously at any given time — mainly because of its free-to-play format. With just five months off its Early Access stage, "PUBG" is technically the most played game even before its Full Release.

With over 10 million copies of the multiplayer first-person shooter battle royale sold, publisher Bluehole and game director Brendan "PlayerUnknown" Greene made the game available in all modes earlier this month. There is also an Xbox controller support for the September system update.

"PUBG's" growth in player count should show no signs of dwindling with the developers planning bigger improvements for the game before it is fully released. Furthering the success of the game is Luminosity Gaming bagging the grand prize at the Squads LAN Tournament at GamesCon "PUBG" Invitational in August, showing gamers who attended event "PUBG's" potential as a newcomer in esports.

Last March, "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds" was released for Microsoft Windows with an early access in the gaming platform, Steam. Game developer Bluehole has also revealed its plans for an Xbox One version of the game following its full release.

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