Is PUBG Cross-Platform? Who You Can Play With

One of you plays on Steam. One of you just bought a PS5. Can you squad up? For PUBG the answer across that particular gap is no — and it is yes across two other gaps people routinely assume are closed.

PUBG runs two separate crossplay systems that do not touch each other. One pools Steam and Epic Games Store players onto the same PC servers. The other pools PlayStation and Xbox players into the same console matchmaking queue. Neither reaches across to the other, and the reason runs deeper than input parity: as of Update 42.3 the two versions are not even running the same rules.

The short answer: two islands, no bridge

• PC to PC: yes. Steam and Epic Games Store share one server, and you cannot turn it off.
• Console to console: yes. PlayStation and Xbox share one matchmaking pool.
• PC to console: no. There is no queue, no party invite, and no setting that joins them.

If your group straddles the PC/console line, the honest answer is that one side installs the game on the other's platform. PUBG went free to play on PC and console on 12 January 2022, so that costs a download and a fresh account and nothing else — see our Battlegrounds Plus guide for what a free Basic account can and cannot do once you get there.

What actually shares a match

Read the diagonal split and you have the whole system: a PC block and a console block, each internally connected, with nothing crossing between them.

PC: Steam and Epic on one server

PUBG arrived on the Epic Games Store on 8 December 2022, 12:00 AM UTC, and KRAFTON was explicit in the launch announcement that it was not spinning up a second population:

PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS played through Epic Games Store will be providing the exact same service as Steam's, and players from either platform may connect with each other and play on one server through crossplay!

Two details from that same announcement are worth keeping:

• There is no on/off switch. KRAFTON's wording: "on/off settings for crossplay are unavailable." A Steam player cannot opt out of matching with Epic players, or the reverse.
• Voice chat is PUBG's, not Epic's. In-game voice chat works on the Epic build; voice chat routed through Epic Games itself does not.

Which storefront you install from is therefore a launcher preference, not a matchmaking decision. KRAFTON opened Epic with Ranked Season 21 available "same as Steam," and the ranked ladder and map rotation have been one shared PC service since.

Console: PlayStation and Xbox in one pool

The console side has been unified far longer. KRAFTON's help centres describe Cross Platform Play in one sentence apiece — the Xbox article says it "will allow for our players on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One to be matched into the same matchmaking pool," and the PlayStation article says the same thing.

Those articles are written in the console generation they shipped in, which is a problem we will come back to. The mechanic itself is current: KRAFTON restated it in the August 2025 console announcement, where the phrase "PUBG Console supports cross-play between platforms" is used as the justification for holding every current console to the same 60fps target. Fairness across a shared pool is why a Series S is being asked to hit the same frame rate as a PS5 Pro.

Cross-platform parties: who can invite whom

Sharing a pool and sharing a squad are different features, and PUBG shipped them in separate updates. Cross Platform Play landed with console Update 4.3 and only merged the matchmaking queues. Party invites came later — PUBG's PlayStation support article is blunt about the version that changed it:

Yes, PUBG supports cross-platform play between PS4 and Xbox. After 6.2 update any PS4 player can send an invite to Xbox player to join his/her squad and vice versa.

So on console, invites run in both directions and have since 6.2. Your PlayStation friend can pull you into their squad from Xbox, and you can do the same back. If you are building a mixed-console squad, our duo and squad guides apply unchanged — the pool is the same pool.

On PC there is nothing to arrange. Steam and Epic players add each other in-game and queue; the crossplay is mandatory, so there is no state where a party fails to form because of storefronts.

Why PC and console stay apart

The input argument is real and KRAFTON documents it directly: PUBG on console does not support mouse and keyboard. Both the Xbox and PlayStation help centres carry the same line — "At this time, PUBG doesn't support Mouse and Keyboard" — with the Xbox version last touched in July 2026. A shared pool would put every controller player against a mouse with no way to opt into an input-matched queue.

But the sharper reason is that PC PUBG and console PUBG are not the same build on the same day. Look at the maintenance windows on two 2026 updates, straight from the patch notes:

Eight days each time. For that window the two platforms are running different versions of the game, which is already fatal to a shared queue. And the divergence does not always close when console catches up. Update 42.3 rebuilt firing from vehicles on PC — weapon spread starting at a 10% penalty and climbing to 20% at speed, recoil starting at 20% and climbing to 30% — then added this line:

On console, recoil while riding in vehicles remains unchanged and is still not applied.

The same update also shipped PUBG: Playgrounds, the community-mode hub, marked "(PC)" in the notes. So on the day you read this, a drive-by out of a UAZ obeys different physics depending on which box you are sitting at, and one platform has a mode browser the other does not. That is not a matchmaking setting somebody forgot to flip — it is two products. Our vehicle combat guide is worth a re-read if you play both.

Which consoles can still run PUBG

This is the part of the answer that dates fastest, because the console list changed. KRAFTON announced in August 2025 that it was ending support for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One:

Starting November 13, PUBG Console will be supported only on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.

The cut landed during the 13 November 2025 maintenance, shipping with console Update 38.2, and it was total: PUBG "will no longer be downloadable or playable on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One." A PS4 in the cupboard is not a way into the console pool any more.

The upside for anyone still on console is a documented performance floor. KRAFTON published the target specs alongside the announcement:

Series S is the only row in that table with a decision attached, and KRAFTON frames it as Resolution Mode versus Performance Mode. In a game where spotting a prone body at range decides the fight, 1080p at 60fps beats 1440p at 30 — our console settings guide covers what else to change once you are in.

On PC the floor is set by the Steam listing rather than an announcement: 64-bit Windows 10, an Intel Core i5-4430 or AMD FX-6300, 8 GB of RAM and a GTX 960 2GB or Radeon R7 370 2GB as the minimum, with 40 GB of storage. The recommended tier moves to an i5-6600K or Ryzen 5 1600, 16 GB and a GTX 1060 3GB or RX 580 4GB. If you are hunting frames rather than eligibility, the graphics settings guide is the one you want.

What does not travel between platforms

Crossplay is about matchmaking, not accounts, and PUBG keeps those strictly separate. The November 2025 transition notice is the clearest evidence, because it documents what happened even on a move within one platform family — PS4 to PS5:

• Account data and purchased items carried over. Same account, no transfer process, log in on the new console and continue.
• In-game settings did not. KRAFTON's reason: the PS5 and PS4 versions "are separate products," so settings data is not shared and had to be set up again.
• PlayStation trophies were reset. KRAFTON says it explored transfer with Sony Interactive Entertainment and found the data volume made it technically infeasible.
• Xbox achievements survived intact.

If settings and trophies could not survive a jump between two PlayStations, nothing about your Steam account is going to appear on a PS5. A new platform means a new PUBG account and a progression climb from zero — including the Survival Mastery level 80 requirement that gates Ranked. Your weapon mastery levels stay where you earned them.

KRAFTON's own FAQ is years out of date

One warning before you go looking for a second opinion. KRAFTON's PC support centre still carries an article titled "Will you be releasing on other platforms?" that was touched as recently as 3 August 2026 and reads:

As on now the game is available in PC, Xbox One, PS4 and Stadia. For lower end PCs, we also have the LITE version of the game.

Xbox One and PS4 have not been able to launch PUBG since 13 November 2025, by KRAFTON's own announcement. Stadia shut down on 18 January 2023, per Google. The PlayStation help centre is no better — it still hosts articles asking whether there will be 4K resolution on PS4 and whether you need PS Plus to play PUBG on PS4, both about hardware that cannot run the game. Even the Ranked FAQ, touched on 19 August 2026, still describes Season 7 settings and a three-map ranked pool of Erangel, Miramar and Sanhok; the current ranked pool is Erangel, Miramar, Taego and Rondo.

The "updated" date on a help-centre article tracks when somebody touched the record, not when anybody re-checked the facts. This site has been burned by exactly that: two of our own map guides were originally written around features KRAFTON had already removed, and both now carry corrections instead. Dated announcements and patch notes are the source of truth here. Help articles are a starting point.

Quick Action Checklist

• Steam and Epic Games Store players share one PC server, with no crossplay on/off setting
• PlayStation and Xbox players share one console matchmaking pool
• PC and console do not share a match, a party or a queue — one side has to switch platform
• Console party invites work both directions and have since Update 6.2
• PUBG has been free to play on PC and console since 12 January 2022, so a second account costs a download
• PS4 and Xbox One lost support on 13 November 2025 — current console is PS5 or Xbox Series X|S only
• On Xbox Series S, take 1080p at 60fps over 1440p at 30fps
• Expect console updates roughly eight days behind PC, and expect some changes to land PC-only
• Nothing carries between platforms except what lives on that platform's account — plan a fresh grind
• Do not trust PUBG's help-centre platform articles; check the dated announcement instead