In the world of battle royale video games, PUBG: Battlegrounds has fallen a long way from its 2018 high point, but in the world of creator experiences, the game once known as PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is just getting started. As PUBG developer Krafton builds a world-creation engine called PUBG: Playgrounds, it is launching a contest that will see it give away a $95,000 prize pool to creators who launch experiences within PUBG.
For what it’s calling the PUBG: Battlegrounds UGC Contest, Krafton is teaming up with CurseForge, a company best known as a distributor of video game mods. Contest entrants can submit their worlds across three categories: Combat modes that feature stipulations like “one v. one” or “snipers only,” Survival builds that pit players against larger attacking forces, and Creative experiences that bring PUBG into new genres like racing and puzzles.
To submit their work for consideration, creators must register an account on CurseForge before signing up via the official contest page. In each of the three categories, $25,000 will be split among the top ten finishers, with the first-place winners earning $10,000 apiece. Additional prizes of $2,500 will go to six community favorites, and ten mid-contest prizes worth $500 each will account for the remaining $5,000.
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Krafton and CurseForge will consider factors like fun, completeness, and originality when judging the submissions. The 30 winning modes (ten in each category) will be added to the PUBG: Playgrounds library.
Before it ever entered the experiences market, PUBG was a seminal game in the battle royale genre. It exploded onto the scene in 2017 and quickly amassed a user base that included more than three million players.
Fortnite’s arrival took the wind out of PUBG’s sails, with the Epic Games entry becoming the defining title in the battle royale genre. Further issues, including widespread cheating allegations, continued to harm PUBG’s reputation among gamers.
After Epic Games added Roblox-style creator experiences to Fortnite, Krafton brought similar changes to the PUBG community. The 2025 launch of a creator program signalled that PUBG was ready to move beyond third-person, open-world shooter mechanics to become an all-around game creation platform.
With the launch of PUBG: Playgrounds and the associated competition, that new functionality is now available to PUBG players. Submissions for the UGC Contest will be accepted through September 2, with the winners revealed on September 14.
