H1Z1 update borrows from PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds

The other big last-person-standing shooter is getting a major patch to take some pointers from the latest entry in this genre. Publisher Daybreak Game Company launched an update for H1Z1: King of the Kill today, which is its successful online competitive-survival game. H1Z1 helped kick off the Battle Royale-like craze after adding the King of the Kill mod from developer Brendan “PlayerUnknown” Greene into the core H1Z1 product. But in March, Greene returned with a more refined take in the form of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds from the Bluehole game studio. Battlegrounds has sold more than 8 million copies so far, and Daybreak wants to mimic what it can so that it can maintain its fan base in the face of this competition.

H1Z1: King of the Kill is still one of the most-played games on Steam. Even though it has fallen far behind Battlegrounds, which often has five-to-eight times as many simultaneous players, H1Z1 often has as many as 100,000 people all logged on at the same time. Updates like this could ensure that number doesn’t dip and send fans over to PUBG instead.