The winner is the last individual or group still standing. Players parachute onto one of the eight maps, each with a varied size and topography, at the beginning of each match. In every round the plane’s flight route changes across the globe, so players must rapidly figure out when it’s best to evacuate and parachute to the ground. 

The only equipment available to players at first is personalized apparel, which has no bearing on gameplay. Players can find guns, cars, armor and other equipment by searching buildings, ghost towns and other locations once they land. 

At the beginning of a match, these things are systematically placed over the map with better equipment usually found in high-risk areas. Players who are killed can also be plundered to obtain their equipment. 

Both first and third person modes offer advantages and disadvantages in terms of fighting and situational awareness. However, some benefits can be lost if server specific parameters are used to force all players to adopt a single viewpoint.

The map’s playable area shrinks every few minutes towards a random location. If a player is caught outside the safe zone, they will gradually suffer damage and eventually be eliminated. The boundary is represented by a shimmering blue wall that gets smaller over time. 

This makes the map more constrained which raises the likelihood of encounters. Random areas of the map are bombarded and highlighted in red throughout the game, endangering players who stay in certain areas. Players are alerted a few minutes prior to these occurrences in both situations, allowing them to move to a safer location. 

Sometimes at random or whenever a player uses a flare gun, a plane will fly over different areas of the playable map and drop a loot box that contains things that are normally unavailable during regular gameplay. These packets create red smoke that is quite visible which attracts interested players and leads to more fights. 

A complete round often takes no more than half an hour. Depending on how well they perform, players earn in-game cash at the end of each round. The money can be used to buy crates filled with cosmetics for customizing weapons or characters. 

In March 2018, a rotating “event mode” was introduced. By creating larger teams or squads or changing how weapons and armor are distributed over the game map, these events affect the standard game rules.