Every PUBG Map and How They Officially Differ
Contents
PUBG officially describes nine maps across the pages of its game-info section. The size and key features below come from the official card for each location, linked in the sources.
Large maps — 8x8 km
- Erangel — the game’s original map, a classic mix of fields, forest, and urban buildings.
- Miramar — a desert landscape, also officially 8x8 km.
- Vikendi — a snow map; its signature vehicle is the Snowmobile.
- Taego — a map built around the Comeback BR comeback mechanic.
- Deston — a more modern urban map, tied to water-based and vertical transport.
- Rondo — the newest of the large maps, also officially 8x8 km.
All six maps in this group share the same stated size, even though the internal layout and the balance of open versus closed areas differ substantially between them.
Medium and small maps
- Sanhok — 4x4 km, a tropical map with denser building coverage relative to its area.
- Paramo — 3x3 km, with an active volcano; officially described as a map with shifting topography (Random Generation Map) that changes from match to match.
- Karakin — 2x2 km, the smallest map in the game.
Signature mechanics on individual maps
Karakin officially stands out through two elements: the Black Zone — artillery-strike areas that can be anticipated via an on-screen warning — and the Sticky Bomb, an explosive used to tear down building walls. No other map has officially received that same combination of mechanics.
Deston is officially tied to the Air Boat water vehicle and to gear for vertical movement — more on that in our piece on PUBG vehicles.
What isn’t officially stated
- No “best map” ranking. The official pages describe each map on its own, without comparative ratings of difficulty or popularity.
- No exact rotation schedule for queues. Which maps are active in a given mode right now is a matter of current server settings, not a fixed rule stated on the game-info pages.
- No official explanation for why six maps share the 8x8 size. The pages present the figure as a fact, without justifying the choice of scale.
How map size affects a match
A smaller map means the Blue Zone shrinks faster relative to the player count, so fights on Karakin or Sanhok generally break out sooner than on Erangel or Miramar. That’s a direct consequence of the officially stated sizes, not a guess: with the same number of players, a smaller area means a higher density of encounters right from the start of the match — the subject of our piece on your first PUBG match.
Frequently asked questions
What's the biggest map in PUBG?
The largest size is 8x8 km, and six maps officially share that footprint: Erangel, Miramar, Vikendi, Taego, Deston, and Rondo. None of them is described as "bigger" than the others in this group.
What's the smallest map in PUBG?
Karakin, at 2x2 km — the most compact map in the game according to official data. Because of its small size, fights on it generally start much sooner than on the larger maps.
What makes Karakin special?
The official page highlights two signature mechanics: the Black Zone (an artillery-strike area) and the Sticky Bomb, an explosive that can be planted on buildings. These are Karakin-exclusive elements not officially found on any other map.
What's special about Paramo?
Paramo is a 3x3 km map with an active volcano, and the official page describes it as a Random Generation Map — one whose topography changes every match. That sets Paramo apart from the rest of the maps, which are built on fixed terrain.
Are all nine maps available at the same time?
The official game-info pages don't separately cover map rotation in public queues — they only describe the maps themselves. Whether a specific map shows up in a specific mode depends on the current server queue settings.