PUBG Targeting New Crowd-Funded Card Game In Surprising Move

Published Oct 29, 2026, 1:21 PM EDT Niall (pronounced Ny-ul) is a UK-based writer who has been writing about Magic: The Gathering throughout his entire career, with everything from new set breakdowns and individual deck guides to offering his opinions on the state of formats and the general direction of the iconic TCG. Niall also has a rich history covering triple-A releases, sports games, and PC hardware. Trading card games are bigger than ever, so it's no surprise to see some new faces trying their luck at creating a trendy new product. That said, the last property I expected to see behind a new TCG or tabletop project is PUBG, the original battle royale game that has also become a hugely successful mobile game. Alas, PUBG: Final Circle is real, or at least it will be if it is successfully funded via Kickstarter when the campaign starts. It's not unusual for new games to use Kickstarter or Gamefound for pre-production funding, but PUBG's overall success over the last nine years suggests this may not be a necessary step. PUBG: Final Circle Is Coming To Kickstarter Soon There's very little to show for PUBG: Final Circle right now, beyond a short hype trailer, but the game was playable at Spiel Essen in late October. One report from the show suggested as many as 1,500 players experienced the game, and it also revealed that the game will include a pack-opening element, with booster packs containing 13 cards and costing up to $4.99. Given that the Kickstarter page is already live, we would expect the campaign to go live reasonably soon, but the previous report also suggests it isn't due to go live until March 2027, which is a considerable wait and could point toward a 2028 release window. PUBG is no stranger to the tabletop space, with a board game having been released in 2023, and it holds a respectable 7.0 rating on BoardGameGeek at the time of writing. Mechanics & Gameplay Kept Under Wraps, For Now Beyond the trailer, which doesn't hint at any major gameplay elements beyond item and location cards, we know very little about the game. The trailer mentions ripping packs, which supports reports that booster packs are part of the game, though it's unclear whether they're required to play. The Kickstarter page mentions a game mode with no deckbuilding required, while also offering the option to introduce deckbuilding for a "deeper layer of strategy." The page also mentions surviving the final circle to claim your chicken dinner, suggesting the card game adapts core elements of the video game. Unlike the video game, PUBG: Final Circle will be capped at just five players max, with a minimum of two players required, meaning no solo adventures at this time. Initial indicators suggest this is a self-contained game, playable with everything in the main box, but expansions are always a possibility, and booster packs could deliver them without releasing new boxed products every so often. If this is PUBG truly looking to explore the TCG space, it's up against stiff competition with the likes of Magic: The Gathering, Pokémon, and Yu-Gi-Oh at the top of the mountain, while there has also been an influx of newer games like Riftbound, Disney Lorcana, Cyberpunk 2077, and the upcoming Hellbreak TCG. This means the market is as saturated as it's ever been, and while that doesn't mean there isn't room for more new games, the landscape will be trickier to break into.