PUBG: Battlegrounds released on Google Stadia in April 2020, making Stadia the cloud gaming platform associated with that launch.
The Stadia version arrived on April 28, 2020, as PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds: Pioneer Edition. It included the base game, the Survivor Pass: Cold Front, and Stadia-exclusive content. Stadia Pro subscribers could claim it at no additional charge, while other users could purchase it.
This was a cloud-streamed version rather than a separate PUBG game. Stadia ran the game on Google’s remote servers and streamed the video to players, allowing access without installing the full PC version. The Stadia release also supported cross-platform play with console players when using a controller.
A common mix-up is confusing Stadia with Xbox Cloud Gaming, Luna, or GeForce Now. Those services either arrived later, offered different catalog arrangements, or were not the platform named in PUBG’s April 2020 release history. Google discontinued Stadia in January 2023, so the version is now mainly a historical footnote in PUBG’s platform history.