Level Infinite, the publisher of PUBG MOBILE, has announced a number of details for the upcoming 2025 esports season.
Among other news, the company will commit a $10m (~£ 7.86m) prize pool for events in 2025 and will support more grassroots events than before. In addition, the game will also be featured at the Esports World Cup 2025.
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In a press conference held by James Yang, the Director of Global Esports at Level Infinite, Yang detailed the upcoming PMGC Grand Finals, the season-ending event for PUBG MOBILE. Taking place for the first time ever in London, the PMGC will finish over the weekend with a total of 16 teams competing for a $3m (~£2.36m) prize pool.
Yang noted that this PMGC final is the largest event that the company will organise in Western Europe,
Looking ahead, Yang said that the company will invest more into grassroots-level esports competitions than ever before, adding that there will be a total of 22 official regional tournaments across the game’s five key regions. The best teams from these tournaments will get a chance to advance to regional PUBG MOBILE Super League events and from there get a chance to compete at the PUBG MOBILE World Cup or the PUBG MOBILE Global Championship.
Yang noted that the unique aspect of battle royale games is that they are “easy to learn and hard to master,” and that makes them, especially mobile ones such as PUBG MOBILE, very interesting to a wider amateur audience. The expansion of the grassroots scene is aimed at attracting more players to the PUBG MOBILE esports scene, and more tournaments are the first step in doing that.
Yang concluded: “Once we have a great ecosystem for amateur players, I feel like that will translate to better viewership for our overall audience, the Pro League and so on. “
Another major announcement is the $10m (~£ 7.86m) prize pool for 2025, which is also aimed at fostering growth and supporting the popularity of the game. Yang commented that the investment is aimed at supporting players and teams, and will include prize pools for large events, but also support for smaller grassroots events and the PUBG MOBILE partnership programme for teams.
“I think this is a big amount of money, and we have continuously invested since the start of PUBG MOBILE, but this time we wanted to say just how much we’re investing. If the amateur scene starts to get bigger in 2025, we will be happy to invest even more.”
Commenting on the partnership programme for 2025, Yang stressed the difference between a partnership and a franchise programme, and that a partnership programme should not guarantee a spot if the team performs below expectations.
Yang added:”We want to make the partnership programme more competitive. For this year, we can guarantee the slot, but for next year we want to increase the competitiveness. In some cases, some teams knew that they will keep their slot, but their ranking and results were very low.
“Next year in most regions, if the placement of a partner team is bad, we might replace them with another team. If an amateur team can play better than a partner team, we should allow more chance for amateur teams rather than for poorly-performing partner teams.”
In 2025, PUBG MOBILE will host several high-profile international events. First is the PUBG MOBILE Global Open, or PMGO, which is set to take place in Uzbekistan in March and April. After the PMGO, PUBG MOBILE World Cup will be held during the EWC in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in the summer, and the year will conclude in Thailand at the PUBG MOBILE Global Championship.
