PUBG: Rondo absent for all four weeks of 42.3 — map selection drops to 3 slots in Europe

A European player who opens the map selector in PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS this Sunday, August 16, will no longer find Rondo there, and won't find it again until the end of cycle 42.3. The schedule published by KRAFTON on August 11 covers four weeks, from August 12 through the week beginning September 2, and Rondo doesn't appear in any of them: not in Europe, not in North or South America, not in Russia, not on console. In these regions, the map now only survives in Ranked.

The cause comes down to a single number. Update 42.3 reduces the map selection from five to three slots in these regions: one fixed slot, permanently occupied by Erangel, and two rotating slots, one for a large map, the other for a small one. That leaves only four large-map slots across the entire cycle, shared among Taego, Miramar, Vikendi, and then Deston. Rondo doesn't make the cut.

Two dates to note. On PC, the next rotation falls on Wednesday, August 19 at 4 a.m. Paris time, three days from now: Sanhok gives way to Karakin, and Taego to Miramar. On console, the switch to three slots doesn't happen until Thursday, August 20, after maintenance.

Erangel keeps the fixed slot because it has the highest selection rate

The principle is laid out in the August 11 Dev Letter. Of the three slots open in Normal Match, the first never changes: it's Erangel, which shows the highest selection rate over the entire observed period and whose player count per match varies little. The other two rotate every week, one for a large map, the other for a small one:

• Large maps (8 × 8 km): Erangel, Miramar, Taego, Deston, Rondo, Vikendi.
• Small maps: Sanhok (4 × 4 km), Paramo (3 × 3 km), Karakin (2 × 2 km).

The publisher says it kept a permanent small-map slot because the small-map audience, while a minority, is a consistent one.

Rondo remains playable in Ranked, at 25% alongside Erangel, Miramar, and Taego

Rondo isn't being removed from the game: it's leaving Normal Match in the affected regions, but the Ranked map pool follows a different logic, updated season by season rather than weekly. For 42.3, the split there is 25% each for Erangel, Miramar, Taego, and Rondo. If you're set on Rondo, Ranked is therefore the only place where the game can send you there — with no guarantee, since it's a one-in-four draw rather than a choice.

A note on method: this absence isn't announced anywhere. It can only be spotted by reading line by line through the four weeks of the Map Operation Report, across the NA, SA, EU, RU, and console tables.

The European schedule for the four weeks, from August 12 to September 2

Since the NA, SA, EU, and RU tables are identical, this table also applies to North American, South American, or Russian players. Rotations happen every Wednesday at 4 a.m. Paris time.

Sanhok is the only rotating map to come back twice, in weeks 1 and 4.

On August 19, Sanhok leaves for two weeks and Karakin (2 × 2 km) arrives

The window closing Wednesday, August 19 at 4 a.m. is the last chance to choose Sanhok before September 2. The same goes for Taego, which is giving up its large-map slot to Miramar and won't return before the end of the cycle: if you were planning to play either one, you have three days left. Taking their place is Karakin, the smallest map in the game at 2 × 2 km. Paramo fans will have to wait until August 26.

On console, everything shifts by eight days: first week on August 20

Consoles get the same system and the same map rotation, eight days later. Regions affected: NA, EU, SA and APAC. Rotations there take place every Thursday at 9 a.m. Paris time:

• Week 1 — August 20: Erangel, Taego, Sanhok.
• Week 2 — August 27: Erangel, Miramar, Karakin.
• Week 3 — September 3: Erangel, Vikendi, Paramo.
• Week 4 — September 10: Erangel, Deston, Sanhok.

Until then, consoles keep their five slots.

Five maps open at once meant five queues to fill

KRAFTON puts forward a single reason: matchmaking fragmentation. Map selection had been extended to NA, SA, EU, RU and console with the May 2026 update, and so it ran for about three months before this adjustment. These regions have smaller player pools, which five open maps split into five queues: on less popular maps, fewer players per match, longer queues, a higher proportion of bots. A point that's often misunderstood: even random matchmaking distributes players across all open maps, so the pool ends up divided for everyone.

The measurement period used for 42.3 runs from June 1 to July 28. The breakdown of preferences by region only exists as images: no percentages are available in text form, so we won't be citing any. The French version of the Report describes its method as follows:

using an in-depth analysis of various factors related to map usage, across all modes, including play time, number of matches, selection rate and dropout rate

AS, SEA and KAKAO keep five slots and Taego permanently

The change doesn't affect every region: AS, SEA and KAKAO keep the old five-slot format — labeled Fixed, Preferred and Etc. — with Taego permanently alongside Erangel — and Sanhok as the third fixed map on KAKAO. None of the above applies there.

Map Selection, Rotation (Large) and Rotation (Small): no French label exists

A note on terminology. The French PUBG site has published neither the Developer Letter of August 11th, nor the Map Rotation 42.3 report: both addresses respond, but without an article body. As a result, four terms have no official translation: Map Selection, the name of the feature, Rotation (Large), Rotation (Small), and the categorization Large Maps / Small Maps. We are deliberately leaving them in English: a homemade equivalent would prevent you from finding the item in-game. "Fixed slot" and "rotating slot" are, here, descriptions of our own making and not client labels.

On the other hand, the following have an official label, noted in the 42.2 Report and the 42.3 Update Notes: Normal Match, Competitive, rotation, Fixed, Featured, Etc., Week 1 through 4, Schedule, Start, Meta Rotation, and Developer Letter. Map names, for their part, are never translated.

What the two documents don't say yet

• The exact time of the European maintenance on August 12th does not appear there.
• The label of the selector in the French client could not be verified: we are not inventing it.
• Nothing is announced about the 42.4 cycle, nor about a return of Rondo in Normal Match.
• KRAFTON promises a separate FAQ on the points left aside.

The three dates to remember

Wednesday, August 19th, 4 a.m. (Paris time): on PC, Miramar and Karakin replace Taego and Sanhok. Thursday, August 20th: consoles switch to the three slots and begin their week 1. September 2nd: last week published on PC, Deston and the return of Sanhok.

This schedule is only one part of 42.3, which also brings the first Meta Rotation, detailed on our site on August 10th.