I wanted to write an article explaining how well PUBG Mobile — the portable adaptation of Playerunknown's Battlegrounds — runs on the Google Pixelbook, my favorite Chromebook. The only problem? The game wouldn't even load.
One of the most exciting aspects of Android app support coming to Chrome OS was the chance to fill the gaping void that is gaming on a Chromebook. And while we've found plenty of great games that run on the Pixelbook — arguably the best Chromebook around — PUBG Mobile couldn't even get past the logo for Tencent Games, the title's publisher.
We've reached out to both Google and Tencent Games for an official response, but neither have responded. If either do, we'll update this story.
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Online speculation, though, points to an unbridgeable technical gap that separates the game from the machine: a major incompatibility. On Reddit, many users are positing that PUBG Mobile was written to be run only on a mobile processor (such as an ARM or Qualcomm chip structure), which would make the game incapable of loading on the x86-processor-based Pixelbook.
Fortunately, PUBG Mobile does run on some Chromebooks, and we've even seen evidence of this. The below YouTube video shows that the game can run (though the controls are awkward) surprisingly smoothly on the Teqnio 11.6-inch Chromebook, which is currently on sale for $129 at Walmart.
In time meantime, check out our roundup of the best Chromebook games; we've tested all of these games.
