Why Krafton is missing an easy win by not bringing PUBG Battlegrounds to Switch 2

PUBG Battlegrounds is one of the most successful battle-royale games in history, but developer Krafton/PUBG Studios may be missing a trick by not bringing the game to the Nintendo Switch 2.

Released in 2017 as an early access PC game for Windows, PUBG Battlegrounds fast became a smash hit, letting players fly down to an island to compete against 99 others to take the crown. However, despite the game reaching a peak of 3,236,027 players in January 2018, Epic Games’ Fortnite was overtaking PUBG due to its bigger investment, partnerships, and bigger esports placements.

In 2025, the game is still active, but it’s nowhere near what it used to be in terms of popularity. With this in mind, we’re going to explain why PUBG Battlegrounds has been absent from Nintendo’s Switch consoles, and what the benefits could be for Krafton/PUBG Studios if they decide to release the game on Nintendo’s platform.

Despite PUBG Battlegrounds not being the juggernaut it once was, the game still has a huge following worldwide, especially in countries like Korea and the UK. While Epic Games’ Fortnite is still banned in several countries on Apple’s App Store, PUBG Mobile, a port of Battlegrounds, is widely available on iPhone and iPad.

But the game’s drop in popularity isn’t just due to it not being available on the Switch — several gamers complain about the same issues PUBG has had for several years. This includes its poor anti-cheat measures, with many bots flooding matches with pinpoint accuracy in eliminating real players, as well as the developers’ over-reliance on Korean Pop-themed events to satisfy a specific market, but alienating others. This loss of focus has contributed to PUBG losing market share and respect in the battle-royale genre, as well as the esports scene.

Releasing PUBG Battlegrounds on Nintendo Switch 2 won’t be a fix-all solution. In addition, Krafton/PUBG Studios should take feedback from its users to heart and work on a 2.0 update, in a similar vein to how Activision released a new version of Call of Duty: Warzone in 2022.

The appearance of PUBG Battlegrounds has barely changed since its release in 2017, while others like Fortnite have seen new gameplay features and big graphical improvements since its initial launch. This includes the move to the newer Unreal Engine 5 in 2022, which brought more detailed foliage, ray-tracing features, and more. This new version was also released on Switch 2’s launch day, bringing these improvements to new and returning players instantly.

A PUBG Battlegrounds 2.0 version for Nintendo’s console with better graphics, better anti-cheat systems, and a better focus on content could strongly appeal to players. It could further boost the Switch 2 as an ideal console for mobile esports. This would have a big impact on both PUBG and esports, as it would bring the game to modern standards, while keeping the playerbase intact, but also attracting new gamers, much like how Warzone 2.0 was marketed at its launch. There’s potential to grow its monthly player base from 300,000 to double if Krafton/PUBG Studios looks into these solutions.

However, after seven years of the game not being made available on Nintendo’s platform, there are clearly reasons why, even if Krafton/PUBG Studios hasn’t explicitly revealed them. One constant theme found on places like Reddit attributes the game’s absence on Nintendo’s consoles due to PUBG’s bad performance on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S/X to start with. Reports of lag, starting with the title’s menu screen, are reason enough for some to explain why PUBG isn’t on Switch.

Another factor could be due to Xbox’s recent layoffs. Krafton/PUBG Studios and Microsoft agreed on a deal in 2017 to bring PUBG to Xbox as an early access title, along with helping to port the game to the platform. Despite the game coming to PlayStation a year later, the terms of the deal allegedly remain, which still haven’t been revealed. With thousands losing their jobs and games either losing funding, like John Romero’s company, Romero Games, or the shutting down of The Initiative and the cancellation of the Perfect Dark reboot, the terms of the deal between Krafton/PUBG Studios and Microsoft could be changing, too.

Porting and maintaining a new version of PUBG could introduce its own set of problems for Krafton/PUBG Studios. They’re simply not a big developer compared to Epic Games, which can maintain Fortnite and its multitude of modes with a large headcount worldwide. One more version of PUBG, not least a whole new version, as we described in the previous section, could result in the game on all platforms suffering more than players have seen in the past few years.

Despite Krafton/PUBG Studios showing no signs of bringing PUBG to the Nintendo Switch 2, it still feels like an easy win if it did. With Epic Games releasing a new version of Fortnite for the console, complete with improved graphics and more, it seems unlikely that PUBG won’t be able to run on the Switch 2.

Granted, we’ve mentioned how Krafton/PUBG Studios is a far smaller studio than Epic Games, and another port could limit its resources. But there is a clear opportunity here, and with Switch 2 already becoming the best-selling console of all time within two weeks of its launch on June 5, perhaps it’s a risk worth taking for the developer.