Rick Li announced the release of PUBG Mobile Light. Pre-registration opens 25 August on Google Play and the App Store, with launch scheduled for later in 2026.
The Android client starts at roughly 1GB. iOS stays under 2GB, extremely compact.
Li was specific about the framing. It "is not about making a smaller game, with a smaller experience," he said. "It's about maintaining the high-quality PUBG Mobile standard while giving players a lighter and more accessible way to play." Lightspeed's goal, in his words, is to "reduce the burden" on devices.
The market it's landing in
So this can be read as, The DRAM and NAND shortage we've been tracking through graphics cards, consoles and PC builds has reached mobile phones. IDC expects manufacturers to respond by shipping some devices with less memory and storage.
For most of mobile gaming's history, the safe assumption was that budget hardware will improve every year, so you build for where phones will be rather than where they are. The global average smartphone hit 8.4GB of RAM at the end of 2025.
If the bottom of the phone market stops improving, or moves backwards on storage, it breaks the math. A game eight years deep in maps, modes, cosmetics and event resources has a real problem on a phone with less room than last year's model.
The current iOS App Store package for standard PUBG Mobile is 4GB before anything downloaded in-game. Recent updates already added options for uninstalling Custom resources and choosing between local and cloud downloads.
Where competitors sit
Call of Duty: Mobile runs a 2.8GB iOS download with modular installs for HD resources, maps, weapons and operators. Free Fire is around 1.5GB on iOS.
A sub-2GB PUBG client puts it in line with games that treated download size as an accessibility feature years ago.
What Light actually is
- Erangel and the standard core combat at launch
- Additional content downloaded separately
- Existing PUBG Mobile accounts work, cosmetics and owned items included
- Cross-version matchmaking with standard client players
- Updates arriving alongside the main game rather than on a separate schedule
That last pair is the important bit. Light isn't a walled-off population, which is nice.
Light is not Lite
Somebody at KRAFTON made a decision that search engines will be dealing with for years.
PUBG Mobile Lite launched in 2019 as a standalone Android game for low-end devices. Its compromises:
- A 2x2 kilometre map instead of the full ones
- 60 players per match
- Around 500 to 600MB, requiring 1GB of RAM
- Separate accounts, separate progression, separate updates
- No cross-play with standard PUBG Mobile
- Android only
Light keeps the ecosystem, the account, the inventory, the friends list, the matchmaking and the content pipeline. It just trims how much of it has to sit on your phone.
Lite asked you to choose between a lightweight PUBG and the full game's population and content. Light doesn't. KRAFTON hasn't said anything about Lite's future, though it hasn't received official updates or patches in years.
KRAFTON also confirmed BGMI Lite is coming, targeting end of 2026. No pre-registration date, download size or supported device list yet, and the 25 August date applies to Light globally rather than BGMI.
System requirements and the full launch content list are still unannounced.
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