It sounds like PUBG has done pretty well for itself since going free-to-play, apparently bringing in roughly 80,000 news users a day.
More and more live service games are going free-to-play, with PUBG having done so in January of this year, and Fall Guys having done the same in June. A big part of that is likely to bring in more players, especially because all of the big, successful live service titles like Apex Legends and Destiny 2 are free-to-play. And according to developer Krafton's preliminary earnings report for the first half of 2022, PUBG going free to play has certainly helped.
The report states that since going free-to-play in January, PUBG "has seen a steady inflow of more than 80,000 new users per day." To give you an idea of how many new players that is, PUBG went free-to-play 214 days ago, meaning over 17 million players have signed-up to play the game.