PUBG is on the verge of going free to play which is both exciting and terrifying for the existing players.
PUBG managed to stick with the buy to play model for much longer than one could anticipate event after other battle royales became highly successful thanks to their F2P models. Fortnite overcame PUBG long ago and is still the king in the genre while Apex Legends and Call of Duty: Warzone are enjoying a lot of success as well.
The end of PUBG's buy to play era came on January 11, 2022, when the game started being free to download for everyone. Many found themselves surprised when they couldn't play the game already but the reason for this was that PUBG essentially had a pre-load time. The game will go properly free to play on January 12, 2022, when the maintenance concludes .
Maintenance is going to be held for PC and consoles at the same time and as each platform wraps up, the players will be able to log back in. This is also when the F2P newcomers will be able to finally give PUBG a shot.
Veterans of the game are either hoping to see more players around or are afraid this will bring more cheating, depending on who you ask. Both sides are probably right and time will tell how efficient Krafton can be with curbing the cheater menace.