PUBG May Have Super-Sized Map Surprises In Store For 2021

In Season 10 for PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, we'll see the smallest map to date added to the game's lineup. A map that's purely urban, Haven will only have an overall footprint of 1km x 1km, and it's hard to overstate how tiny that is when compared to PUBG's largest maps like Erangel. This has definitely been a year of small maps for PUBG, as the beginning of the year saw the addition of the 2km x 2km Karakin as well.

Is this a trend that's going to continue into 2021? It doesn't seem likely, as in a new interview with Polygon, PUBG creative director Dave Curd indicated that fans can likely expect new maps to be big again once we're into the new year. While he didn't give specifics, Curd did indicate that something the size of Erangel and Miramar or even larger could be on deck for 2021.

"I think that Erangel/Miramar 8-by-8, perhaps even larger, that seems to really be the sweet spot," Curd said. "So that's something that we're really looking forward to bringing back to players next year." Anyone who has played PUBG at any point since launch can tell you that Erangel – the game's first and easily most familiar map – is absolutely sprawling, so PUBG Corp launching a map that's even bigger could be quite the exciting thing indeed.

For now, though, it seems that 2020's maps have attempted to make games more fast-paced by packing players into a smaller area. The patch notes for update 10.1, which is now live on the PUBG test server, indicate that Haven tosses a new enemy faction into the mix, giving players even more to worry about than their human opponents. The patch notes also say that Haven is a seasonal map that will only be playable during Season 10, so if you want to check it out, you'll need to get to some playtime in once Season 10 goes live.

We'll see what happens from here, but if you're a longtime PUBG player wondering where all the big maps are, it looks like they're coming next year. We'll let you know when PUBG Corp shares more, but for now, check out the patch notes linked above for more on the game's Season 10 update.