Brendan Greene, known as PlayerUnknown, created PUBG: Battlegrounds.

He originally developed the battle royale concept as a mod for Arma 2 and DayZ, then partnered with South Korean studio Bluehole (now part of Krafton) to build the full standalone game, released in early access on Steam in 2017. Greene led the project with backing from Bluehole CEO Chang Han Kim, turning it into a massive hit that popularized the genre.

PUBG Studios, under Krafton, now handles ongoing development of the core PC/console version. For PUBG Mobile, Tencent Games developed and publishes it under license from Krafton. Greene later left active development in 2019 to start his own studios.