PUBG is paying modders $95,000 to build its next mode

PUBG told its modders to stop asking for new content and go build it themselves, backing that request with $95,000.

The battle royale that once turned crouching behind a rock into a personality trait spent the year reinventing itself. First came an AI pivot, then a whole new extraction shooter spinoff, because apparently one genre was never going to be enough.

Now, Krafton is asking its players to design the next chapter instead of just surviving it, and it’s paying handsomely for the privilege. Here’s what that actually means.

PUBG’s $95,000 modding contest: what it pays and how it works

Krafton and modding platform CurseForge announced the PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS UGC Contest on August 3, timed to the launch of PUBG: Playgrounds, a new in-game hub built entirely out of whatever the community dreams up.

Creators can enter original mods across three categories: Combat, Survival and Creative. The winners will pocket cash and their mods will get built right into the game.

CurseForge

Installing mods from CurseForge only requires a few easy steps.

Thirty winning modes will make the final cut, spread across those three categories. Each one carries its own $25,000 pot, with $10,000 earmarked for whoever tops the list.

Ten more creators can pick up $500 mid-contest prizes just for submitting something worth noticing early, and six lucky “Community Favorites” will take home $2,500 apiece, decided entirely by public vote. Submissions open on CurseForge’s dedicated page on August 12 and close September 2. Importantly, there’s no cap on entries, so ten ideas means ten separate mods.

It’s the latest example of Krafton throwing money at anything that might make its community happy. Back in May, the studio revealed it was paying staff $66,000 to have kids, which either makes this feel wildly generous or slightly less surprising. Either way, modding isn’t the only thing worth real money at Krafton this year.