Get Ready for Intense Action With These Must-Try Battle Royale Games

Best Overall: PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds

Those interested in entering the genre may want to start with the progenitor of the battle royale craze. More commonly known as PUBG, this 100-player game started as a mod for other games such as ARMA 2 and DayZ by game developer Brendan "PlayerUnknown" Greene. Many of the concepts and gameplay elements that modern battle royale games utilize were first conceptualized in PUBG, from the shrinking circle, the importance of looting, and the options of solo, duos, or squad-based matchmaking. Beginning as an obscure early access release on Steam, public awareness of PUBG increased due to interest from streamers and other online influencers. The nuanced gunplay and the pure excitement of achieving victory helped PUBG, which was essentially an indie game, win several Game of the Year accolades from a variety of publications.

With the support of a larger development team and investments from Chinese company Tencent Games, PUBG has expanded from PC to other platforms; the game is also available to play on Xbox One and PlayStation 4. Additionally, there is a separate Android and iOS version of PUBG, appropriately titled PUBG Mobile. PUBG has added many different maps to play on, along with an "event mode" that adds modifiers to the gameplay. Although revolutionary for its time, PUBG has paled in comparison from a technical standpoint, suffering from bugs and other performance issues. These problems are especially evident in the console versions of PUBG, which are not as optimized as the original PC version.

This battle royale game is available for PC, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and mobile devices.

Best Social Platform: Fortnite Battle Royale

The most popular battle royale title in the gaming community is also a bonafide hit that has reached the mainstream outside of video games. Fortnite began as a long-gestating project that involved four-player gunplay against a legion of zombies, all enhanced with resource gathering and fort-building. Upon a whim, developer Epic Games created a battle royale mode combining Fortnite gameplay with the rules of PUBG, quite simply titled Fortnite Battle Royale. The original version of Fortnite would be retroactively named Fortnite: Save the World, and the free-to-play Fortnite Battle Royale took a life of its own.

Fortnite's cartoony art style has made the game a lot more accessible to younger audiences, despite all of the shooting and general violence. It's a bloodless affair, however, and children have more so been drawn to the fort-building, along with the emotes and dances that you can make your character do. Like PUBG, 100 players will drop on an island, picking up shield potions, guns, and other items to help them survive as the "storm" closes in. In the years since the launch of Fortnite Battle Royale, the game has evolved into a social platform—live events are now held in Fortnite sessions, including movie screenings and live concerts from artists like Travis Scott. Fortnite's map constantly evolves, keeping the gameplay and exploration fresh, and high-profile crossovers with brands such as Marvel continue to attract young players.

You can play this game on a variety of platforms: PC, PlayStation 5/4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and mobile.

Best Puzzle Game: Tetris 99

Once it was clear that the battle royale genre was rapidly rising in popularity, many observers made off-hand jokes that games like Tetris should have battle royale variants. Apparently, Nintendo took some jokes too seriously, and the company ended up building a formidable battle royale exclusively for Nintendo Switch players. Tetris 99 has 99 people simultaneously playing Tetris, although in a rather cutthroat manner. Using the analog sticks, you can target competing players; if you make lines and rack up combos, you will send garbage Tetris blocks to the players you are targeting, giving them less room to play with and making them more susceptible to getting knocked out. As fewer players remain, the pace of the game speeds up at an alarming rate.

For those looking for an even harder challenge, the Tetris 99 Invictus game mode is exclusive to any players who have won a standard game of Tetris 99, so players know that they'll be competing against the best of the best. Tetris 99 is free with a subscription to the Nintendo Switch Online service, but additional paid downloadable content allows for Tetris matches against computer-controlled players or with another human player locally. Themed tournaments come and go for Tetris 99, usually themed around other recently-released Nintendo games, giving the board a unique aesthetic and background music. Additionally, there is a Team Battle mode that pits four teams of 25 players each against each other.