What is the PUBG Nations Cup? A guide to the esports spectacle

Krafton, the developers behind PUBG, revealed more details for the upcoming PUBG Nations Cup 2025, which is anticipated to be one of the biggest esports tournaments for the battle royale shooter this year.

The PUBG Nations Cup pits the top representative teams from every region against one another for the lion’s share of its prize pool, and this year features its largest number of participating teams yet.

The tournament will be run as an offline tournament based in Seoul on July 31st, 2025. Matches will take place with squads of four in a first-person perspective on PC.

Rankings will be determined through the Global Point Rule (2025 version), where teams earn points based on the number of kills and placements.

In the event of a tie, the following four factors will be taken into consideration to decide a winner.

Viewers can tune into the event through the official PUBG Battlegrounds Twitch and PUBG Esports YouTube channels.

This year’s PUBG Nations Cup will be the biggest one yet, as 24 teams across the globe compete on an international level. All countries have their own separate player selection process.

For example, countries such as United States and Canada select the top performers in the PUBG Americas Series 2025, with a fourth player and coach decided by the top three players chosen.

These are all the announced countries competing in PUBG Nations Cip 2025:

According to Esports Charts, PUBG Nation Cup brought strong results in terms of viewership in 2024. From September 6th-8th, 2024, it attracted a peak viewership of nearly 511,000 users during Day 3 Round 18, with over 5.5 million views in total.

This is a major jump compared to previous years. The 2022 event saw a peak viewership of nearly 276,000, and in 2023 that decreased to over 230,000.

According to statistics by Esports Charts, the PUBG Nations Cup 2024 currently stands as the second most popular event in terms of peak viewership, surpassed only by the PUBG Global Invitational 2018, which reached a peak of nearly 756,000 users.

It is important to note, however, that last year’s Nations Cup is overtaken by several events when it comes to total hours watched. It also only offered a prize pool of $300,000 (~£237,000), in comparison to events such as the 2024 Global Championships, which boasted $1.5 million (~£1.2 million).