Best Battle Royale Games: Surviv.io, ZombsRoyale.io and Bruh.io are Worth a Look

Looking for some free Fortnite or PUBG Battle Royale alternatives? Surviv.io, ZombsRoyale.io or Bruh.io are worth a look. Check out our review and tips for each, here.

Battle royales are currently the most popular trend in gaming. Like hero shooters (and MOBAs before that), everyone is in a rush to develop their own Fortnite or PUBG success story. Browser-based IO BR games that don't require a console or powerful computer have popped up for players who want to fight their friends in lower resolution matches. It might sound like they are the bootleg version of their 3D rendered counterparts, but they have some real heart and real explosions. We dived into the BR stratosphere (without a parachute) and played some of the most popular Fortnite spinoffs. Here's what we found.

Best Battle Royale .IO Games: Browser Based Alternatives To Fortnite and PUBG

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Surviv.io wants you to survive, I guess? Surviv.io

Surviv.io

This is the most popular browser battle royale, and it is also the simplest. You log into a game, either by yourself, duo or with three other friends, and start exploring. There's no parachuting onto a map and no beneficial strategy behind planning your starting point. Being in the middle of the action immediately is exhilarating, you scramble to start checking houses, punching rocks and looting crates in the hopes there's a good weapon inside. There's no wait time after losing a match either, if you die you just queue up again and start the process over.

It's an incredibly fun battle royale. I caught myself dodging bullets and drinking sodas in absolutely no time. My biggest gripe is a small one: ammo are these colored blocks and for my first few games I didn't know that I should pick them up. I thought they were part of the scenery and not integral to success in the battle royale.

Surviv.io Tips:

  • 4x scopes are broken, being able to hit enemies before they even know you exist with a machine gun is dirty.
  • Bullets bounce, so use terrain and walls to your advantage.
  • Don't punch the barrels, they will explode and kill you.
  • Do punch the rocks and trees, there can be weapons and armor hidden inside.

ZombsRoyale.io

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Zombsroyale.io combines Fortnite with a browser! Zombsroyale.io

ZombsRoyale.io is closer to other battle royale games in terms of its play style. You start in a lobby, drop from an airplane and parachute down to pilfer chests and kill enemies. The map is huge, allowing you to hide in places until the red circle of death closes in to try and kill you. Like Surviv.io, this browser game uses circles with fists as your avatar, picking up guns that spray bullets. The UI is a lot cleaner than most IOs but I found it more difficult to use. Being able to click items on the side of the screen would be a helpful addition. Overall, if you are looking for a shameless Fortnite clone with cruddier graphics and emotes, this is the game for you. It literally has the same Tactical Shotgun and RPG as Fortnite , they aren't trying to hide what they are.

Tips

  • Each weapon has a rarity, ranging from a white common to a red mythic. Always equip the better color weapons from your inventory.
  • Barrels with a hammer and sickle flag have the best items, I'm guessing this game was designed in Russia.
  • Wait until the edge of the map to jump out of the plane, I found better weapons and less players on the other side of the world.

Bruh.io

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Bruh.io is a messy game. Bruh.io

The most unique of the bunch, Bruh.io is closer to PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds than Fortnite. You are no longer a sexless circle, but rather a pixelated man, woman or Ugandan Knuckles with a handgun. Ping on the server is lackluster at best; my first few games were full of people lagging out (and giving me easy kills.) The map is also much harder to read than the other iO battle royales and the environment is a muddy pixelated mess. It wouldn't look out of place in Stardew Valley, but in a game where visibility is everything, it just doesn't mesh.

Game queues take longer and you have to wait until the last match finishes before you jump into a new one. That's kind of discouraging since one of the major appeals of Fortnite is the ability to jump into another game immediately. It's that need to prove yourself after a hard-fought loss that keeps these games popular, but that might not even matter to Bruh.io's fan base.

Tips

  • Grab a gun besides the pistol as soon as possible, that thing is trash.
  • If you log into an account, you'll be able to use other avatar skins, like the dead meme Ugandan Knuckles.
  • Shotguns have incredibly short range and are inferior to the assault rifle in nearly every way.

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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

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Steven Asarch is a tech reporter for Newsweek currently based in New York City. In high school, he started stand-up ... Read more

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