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PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds hits Xbox One on Dec. 12

The insanely viral PC hit will soon arrive on Xbox.

Sean Hollister Senior Editor / Reviews
When his parents denied him a Super NES, he got mad. When they traded a prize Sega Genesis for a 2400 baud modem, he got even. Years of Internet shareware, eBay'd possessions and video game testing jobs after that, he joined Engadget. He helped found The Verge, and later served as Gizmodo's reviews editor. When he's not madly testing laptops, apps, virtual reality experiences, and whatever new gadget will supposedly change the world, he likes to kick back with some games, a good Nerf blaster, and a bottle of Tejava.
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Sean Hollister
2 min read
Bluehole Studio

I don't think it's an exaggeration to say PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, or PUBG for short, is a viral sensation unlike anything the video game world has ever seen. 

It's a buggy, unfinished game with no advertising -- and yet the "Hunger Games"-like shooter is so addictive that it sold over 10 million copies in just five months after release. (It's probably closer to 18 million today.) Today alone, over 2 million people were playing the game simultaneously at its peak. 

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Today's top games on Steam. It's not even a contest.

 Screenshot by Sean Hollister/CNET

On Dec. 12, those numbers are likely to skyrocket even higher -- because that's the day PUBG will arrive on the Xbox One game console, according to an official blog post. 

That's right: Those staggering numbers I just shared were generated without the game ever seeing release on a home console. They're all from people playing on Windows PCs, where PUBG has smashed practically every record you can track on Steam.

Just know that the Xbox version might be even a bit more unfinished than the PC release, at least for the time being. According to PUBG Corp. CEO Chang Han Kim, the Xbox and Windows versions will have their own road maps: "Various Xbox One features and functionality will change and come online over time just like they have on PC, with our goal being to have both versions align to each other as soon as possible."

However, PlayerUnknown himself (aka Brendan Greene) told GamesBeat that vaulting -- a long-awaited ability for players to climb up and over objects and out of windows that would normally impede their progress, which will launch on PC test servers this week -- should indeed arrive in time for the Xbox One release in December as well.

Microsoft had previously announced that PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds would be at least temporarily exclusive to the Xbox One as far as consoles are concerned, and should have some enhancements for those who opt to play it on the more powerful Xbox One X , coming Nov. 7. According to GameSpot, the title will cost $30 at launch.

You can read about PlayerUnknown's life (he's quite a character!) and where his zany game came from in our full interview, or check out our complete beginner's guide to the game. Oh, by the way... I still play this game practically every night.

Correction, Nov. 2 at 10:10 am PT: Corrected Xbox One X release date; it's coming Nov. 7, not Nov. 3 as originally written.