• Meaning of Battle Royal(e)-  

Battle Royale is one of the most common terms in gaming community these days. Even people with no relation to gaming whatsoever have started understanding this term pretty well, but this term has not just emerged in the past few years. It has been in use since medieval times. Battle Royale simply means what you have understood by the games in the recent times. It is a combat among a large number of fighters with equal opportunities,where they fight against each other,until in the end only one combatant is standing alive,who becomes the WINNER.

• History of Battle Royale Gaming-

Even before the gaming genre developed, a similar concept has been in use since the year 1988, when the first ever WWE ROYAL RUMBLE event was produced. Though there were multiple events in this game. Royal Rumble which was broadcasted on the USA network,crossed all landmarks of popularity back in the day, in such a way that since 1988 there has been no year in which the event hasn’t been organized

Though PUBG gave the genre “Battle Royale” a huge kickstart, it wasn’t the first game to have this wildly popular mode in it, but interestingly the game that first birthed the genre and PUBG have an extremely strange connection. Let’s get into this loot box of information.

• Evolution of Battle Royale

1. H1Z1- 

The original game H1Z1 gained its popularity because of it’s gameplay and the concept, but the success of the game skyrocketed when, “Brendan PlayerUnknown Grenne” developed a battle royale mod for the game and naming it “King of the Hill”.Yes, you read the name correct, “PlayerUnknown”. 

This was the time when the genre started gaining eyes from the gaming community,which not only included players but also the humongous developer “Sony”,who invited the father of the genre to develop a dedicated Battle Royale game. Though he didn’t work with Sony for very long. 

      2.  PlayerUnknown’s BattleGrounds-

This is where the connection between H1Z1’s battle royale mod King of the Hill and PUBG gets clearer. After leaving Sony, Brendan PlayerUnknown Grenne,was invited by the South Korean gaming giant ,Krafton to develop his own game. PUBG which was developed under Bluehole is a subsidiary of Krafton.Bluehole not only devloped the vision of Brendan, they also gave the game his name, “PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds” . The game was finally released in the year 2017, and became the Steam Game of the Year,2018.

     3. Fortnite-

With PUBG’s start in conquering the gaming world,Fortnite:Save the World, which was developed by Epic Games, also made the entry to the Soon-Going-to-explode Battle Royale industry with its own Fortnite:Battle Royale. While PUBG had to be bought, Epic Games made Fortnite:Battle Royale a free to download game.The american game developers focused on making their game as bug free as they could. Soon, as expected this game too catapulted itself among gamers around the world,with getting itself mentioned in the video with the most dislikes in the history of YouTube-  YouTube Rewind- 2018  and the Marvel Saga Avengers: Endgame

     3. Blast of Battle Royale Games- 

After PUBG and Fortnite became the epitome of fame and gains, there were back to back releases of new battle royale games in the market. Apex Legends,Garena Free Fire,Storm etc, as well as older games started adding Battle Royale as a new mode. Counter Strike : Global Offensive is one of the most popular games with a similar addition known as Danger zone and COD: Black Ops 4.

Course of Action- 

1. Spawning/Dropping-

A large number of players ,usually a 100 player get into the game in the form of Solo,Duo or pairing up as a Squad of four.Different games have different process of getting into the game. Most games such as PUBG,Fortnite and COD: Black Ops IV give the players a chance to drop and parachute to their desired locations from a plane of which the flight path is randomly decided by the game.

    2. Looting/Acquiring Weapons-

After getting to a location,players have to rush to houses and other locations to acquire weapons, helmets,protective vests and other items such as consumables like Energy Drinks and First-aids

There are a wide variety of weapons available in the games with different categories like SMGs,Pistols and most importantly AR Guns and Sniper Rifles. 

Players also get a chance to collect attachments to these guns,which include Suppressors, Flash Hiders,Scopes etc.

  3. Special Loot- 

Players hunt for special loot packages or drops as the gameplay proceeds. These packages contain OP or Overpowered weapons or other special items which are highly valuable in the games. These packages appear in different manners,but air drops are most popular in recent Battle Royale games.

   4. End Zones- 

As the game progresses, the playzone for the players starts to contract throughout the map,forcing players in different areas to come closer. The play zone can start moving to any part of the map according to the games’ algorithm. If the players don’t get into the PlayZone, they start losing their health points leading to a Game Over,hence closing all the players into a smaller area as the game proceeds.

  5. The Win- 

As the zone gets smaller and smaller,the number of living contestants start reducing,and in the end, as all the contestants kill each other,only the last surviving player or players(If it is a team game) .

In the end, we can easily conclude that Battle Royales have been on the top of Gaming Industry and Community in the past two years,and we can see how it is even evolving further in itself. We have enough reasons to believe that Battle Royale has a tremendous market in the coming years.Till then lets enjoy our knocks,kills and most importantly our revivals. 

GamerzByte India is an eSports Entertainment Co., dealing in managing and organizing electronic gaming events, contests and/or tournaments across India. They are based in Mumbai, India and are expanding their network progressively PAN India.  through our channel partner. At GamerzByte, eSports or Competitive Gaming Tournaments are played across platforms such as PC, Console, Mobile and VR. They currently have 2 verticals – Offline Tournaments & an Online eSports Events Portal. Offline Tournaments are held across India covering 4 cities so far with an expansion plan of covering all major tier-1 cities by next year. Their Online eSports Events Portal is built with an idea of bringing the tournaments experience online & with a vision to reach out to every gamer in India. With a passion and a commitment to the best gaming experience, GamerzByte India strives to create a professional community for gamers.

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This post is written by Karan Gaggar. Gamer and a traveler at heart, and I love to spend my time trying in contributing what all I can do for these communities. I have been gaming since I can remember, also into the field of freelance photography and cinematography. Cheers guys.