When PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds first launched it lacked any form of region locking, allowing any given lobby to be filled with participants from all corners of the world. That might not sound inherently bad, though the wild variety of pings often made for inconsistent match-ups decided by connection strength over player skill. Eventually, Bluehole Studios heeded feedback and implemented the feature to the delight of many. With region-based problems seemingly creeping back in, however, what’s the current PUBG region lock 2020 status?
In this guide, we’ll cover everything you need to know about PUBG region locking in 2020.
Does PUBG still have region locking? (2020)
Recently, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds lobbies have been filling up with more and more players from outside the specified server region. Whatever platform you play on, you may have noticed foreign regional languages cropping up in lobbies and player profiles registered to different regions in your matches. For the sake of game balance, the region locking that’s in place should serve to prevent this.
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That’s led some players to speculate that the PUBG region lock has been disabled in 2020, supposedly owing to the fact that it’s necessary to fill out lobbies due to dwindling player numbers. While it’s true that PUBG is no longer the king of battle royale, having been dethroned by Fortnite and Apex Legends, the game is still hugely popular in the grand scheme of things and wouldn’t need to resort to this in order to fill up lobbies.
More likely is the growing prevalence of VPN usage to circumvent region locking. If, for example, you’re based in Asia and use a VPN, it’s possible to trick the game into thinking that you’re in Europe in order to gain access to the EU servers. In doing so, it can be possible to gain an advantage through superior connection and this explains why lots of unscrupulous players do it.
It’s likely that the developers at Bluehole are aware of this, though it isn’t clear if they’re attempting to address it or how they could do so.
