Ahead of this weekend’s Global Championship event in London, we got the chance to discuss the PUBG Mobile Esports 2025 program with the battle royale’s Senior Director of Global Esports, James Yang. The aim for the mobile game’s esports division this year is to have the “most robust amateur esports ecosystem” it can, expanding the opportunities for competition even further.
Following on from last year’s introduction of the PUBG Mobile Global Open (PMGO), Level Infinite’s Esports team is committing even more time and effort into helping amateur players claim their chicken dinners on the pro stage. As well as the PMGO, in 2025, there will be 22 official regional tournaments across five regions where fans of the battle royale game can compete to earn their place in the PUBG Mobile Super League alongside professional esports teams.
Level Infinite is also working with the Esports World Cup once more to bring the PUBG Mobile World Cup back to Riyadh in Saudi Arabia, while 2025’s PMGO will take place in Uzbekistan this spring. PUBG Mobile is investing a massive $10 million for the 2025 season’s prize pool, and according to Yang, “We will be happy to invest even more” if these new grassroots initiatives succeed.
Yang also commented on how PUBG Mobile’s esports structure is centered around getting people to play the game, whereas many other global competitions focus their efforts on viewership and spectacle. He said that getting viewers to make the jump to playing is a lot easier because “Battle Royale [games are] very easy to play but hard to master. The gap between amateur and pro is much narrower than other esports titles.” Thanks to the addition of Ultimate Royale Mode, this is truer than ever, as your performance in-game outside of tournaments can earn you boosts in the amateur competitive sphere.
If you’re interested in PUBG Mobile’s esports scene, make sure to tune into the Global Championship livestream this weekend on PUBG Mobile’s social media pages. In the meantime, get stuck into some more mobile shooter action with our lists of the best FPS games and games like Fortnite.