Brazil's Alpha7, Turkey's S2G and the 16-Team Grind: PUBG Mobile Esports Explained
Battle royale is the hardest format in esports to win: dozens of teams, one circle, no second chances. A Brazilian team conquered the Global Championship in Bangkok and S2G Esports survived nine days in Riyadh. How PUBG Mobile's circuit works and who rules it now.
In most esports, you beat the team in front of you. In PUBG Mobile, you have to outlast everyone. A single match drops 16 squads of four onto an island, shrinks the safe zone, and rewards both kills and survival. A tournament is a marathon of these matches, and a single bad circle can end a world title run.
Two recent marathons crowned very different champions. In late 2025, Brazil's Alpha7 Esports won the PUBG Mobile Global Championship (PMGC) in Bangkok, the game's season-ending world final, with a $3 million prize pool. And in summer 2026, S2G Esports survived what organisers called a nine-day gauntlet to win the PUBG Mobile World Cup (PMWC) at the Esports World Cup in Riyadh.
How the circuit works
PUBG Mobile's esports calendar is run by Tencent's Level Infinite and is one of the most structured in mobile gaming:
- Regional leagues in markets such as Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East and Brazil feed teams into international events.
- PUBG Mobile World Cup (PMWC): the mid-year international event, held at the Esports World Cup since 2024.
- PUBG Mobile Global Championship (PMGC): the season finale and the most prestigious title.
- For 2026, the roadmap added new PUBG Mobile Global Open events, with stops confirmed in Indonesia and Pakistan, giving more teams a route to the top.
Scoring rewards both placement (how long your squad survives) and eliminations, so teams must choose between hiding safely and fighting for points.
Alpha7's comeback
Brazil has become one of PUBG Mobile's strongest regions, and Alpha7 Esports gave it a world title at PMGC 2025. The EWC's coverage framed the run as a championship comeback that stretched "from Riyadh to Bangkok". Winning the final in Bangkok, in a region known for powerhouse Southeast Asian teams, made the result all the more striking.
S2G's summer in Riyadh
The 2026 PMWC was a test of endurance. Over nine days of matches, teams had to survive group stages, survival rounds and a final, and S2G Esports held its nerve to take the trophy. It followed the 2025 PMWC, won by Myanmar's Yangon Galacticos, who came back from the edge of elimination to win.
The game behind the tournaments
PUBG Mobile launched worldwide in March 2018, built by Tencent's Lightspeed & Quantum studio under licence from Korea's Krafton, whose PC game PUBG: Battlegrounds started the modern battle-royale boom. It became one of the most downloaded mobile games in the world and helped make battle royale the defining mobile genre of the late 2010s. It is free to play.
What's next
- Esports Nations Cup: PUBG Mobile was announced as the 16th title of the new country-versus-country event from the EWC's organisers, so national teams, not clubs, will compete.
- PMGC 2026: the next season finale, where Alpha7 will try to defend its crown.
- Esports World Cup 2027: the PMWC is expected back in Riyadh next summer.
For more of this year's mobile esports, including Honor of Kings and MLBB, read our mobile esports feature.
Why it matters
PUBG Mobile's circuit is proof that battle royale can work as a global sport on phones. Its champions come from Brazil, Turkey, Myanmar and beyond, a spread few esports can match. For Krafton, the Korean company behind the original PUBG, it is also a reminder that one of the most important Korean game brands lives, for many players, on a phone screen.