PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG) free for Xbox Live Gold members this weekend

As the battle royale genre continues to explode, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG) has become something of a juggernaut. If you've been holding out on giving it a try, however, now's you're chance to do so without paying a penny.

PUBG is currently free to play for Xbox Live Gold members for the weekend, giving subscribers a chance to play through 11:59 PT on April 22. Gold subscribers can download the game now from the Gold Member feature area on the Xbox dashboard. Like previously free play days run by Microsoft, the full experience will be available to play for the whole weekend. That includes all multiplayer modes, and players will get to keep any Battle Points that they earn if they decide to pick PUBG up after the free weekend is over.

PUBG is still in Game Preview on Xbox, but that hasn't stopped it from garnering a sizable player base. In March, it was announced that the game had already hit 5 million Xbox players. That's in addition to the tens of millions it had already achieved on PC.

Despite its early access state, PUBG has continued to make gradual improvements to smooth out the experience on over the past several months. Still, it faces some tough competition from Fortnite and, potentially, the many other battle royale games that are popping up to take advantage of the surge of interest in the genre.

If you're interested in giving PUBG a shot, Xbox Live Gold members can try it for free this weekend, or pick it up for $30 on Xbox One and PC now.

Dan Thorp-Lancaster

Dan Thorp-Lancaster is the former Editor-in-Chief of Windows Central. He began working with Windows Central, Android Central, and iMore as a news writer in 2014 and is obsessed with tech of all sorts. You can follow Dan on Twitter @DthorpL and Instagram @heyitsdtl