Reading Your PUBG Stats: What ADR, Headshot Rate, and Knock-Conversion Actually Mean
How to use this piece This is a pure guide with no new data — the goal is that when you open your own review panel, you know what every number "is saying, what counts as good, and how to improve it." The reference benchmarks here (e.g. the median ADR of 379) come from our two earlier real leaderboard analyses (the elite data autopsy and the weapon meta), all computed directly from official data, none estimated.
You open your stats page and a wall of numbers hits you: ADR, headshot rate, knock-conversion, support rate… each word makes sense on its own, but together, do they say whether you're actually playing well? This piece takes apart the most important metrics on the review panel one by one: what it measures, what the top looks like, and — most importantly — how you make it better.
1. ADR: the most honest measure of skill
ADR (Average Damage per Round) is the average damage you land on opponents each match. A full-health enemy is 100 points, so an ADR of 300 roughly equals "three full health bars of damage per game."
Why do we keep calling it the number that defines skill best? Because it's almost entirely under your control — unlike wins, which mix in teammates, luck, and the circle. Play more, shoot more accurately, live longer, and ADR naturally rises.
| ADR range | You're probably |
|---|---|
| < 150 | Still learning engagements, often down after a few shots |
| 150–250 | A steady mid-tier player, beating most randoms |
| 300+ | The leaderboard "entry ticket" — 76% of the top break 300 |
| 380 | The median at the top of the ladder |
How to improve: low ADR usually isn't "bad aim" — it's too few effective engagements: empty landings, hiding all game, getting instantly downed in a fight. First aim for "a few more instances of damage per match," then aim for accuracy.
2. Headshot rate: high isn't always good — it depends on the gun
Headshot rate = headshot hits ÷ total hits. Intuitively higher is better, but there's a trap: it's highly correlated with the gun you use.
- With bolt-action snipers like the Kar98k or M24, the headshot rate easily hits 26–29% — because you only pull the trigger when you're confident of a headshot; hit equals headshot.
- With a full-auto rifle like the M416, spraying on the move, the headshot rate is naturally diluted to 12–13%, which is completely normal.
So don't compare your all-guns-average headshot rate against a sniper's. The right way to read it:
- Watch whether the headshot rate of the same gun improves (compare yourself to yourself).
- An automatic weapon around 15% is healthy; forcing it higher makes you "only tap heads, never spray bodies," dropping your overall damage.
How to improve: practice pre-placing your crosshair at head height and tracking sideways, instead of holding on the chest and pulling up. In close-range fights, spraying the chest is actually steadier than gambling on a headshot.
3. Knock-conversion: do your knocks "cash in"?
A knock in PUBG isn't a kill — a downed enemy can still be revived by a teammate. Knock-conversion rate = the share of your knocks that actually turn into kills.
This number exposes a problem many people overlook: are you often knocking people but failing to finish them?
- Low conversion → after knocking an enemy you didn't follow up / suppress, so they get revived → wasted effort, plus you exposed your position.
- High conversion → your knocks reliably cash into results, which is the real productivity of a team fight.
How to improve: after knocking someone, confirm with a follow-up burst, or hold an angle on the reviver, before swinging to another gunline. Especially in the final circle, one un-finished knock often flips the whole game.
4. Support rate and revenge rate: squad's invisible value
In squads, the most underrated thing is "your contribution to teammates." We measure it with two symmetric numbers:
- Support rate: shortly after a teammate is knocked by an enemy, did you deal damage to that enemy (help return fire)? A high support rate means you have your teammates in your eyes, not just playing solo.
- Revenge / trade rate: after a teammate is knocked, did your team finish that enemy in time (avenge the teammate)?
These metrics are invisible in solos, but in squad they often explain "why it feels safe to play with you" better than KD does.
How to improve: when you hear a teammate call out they're down, the first instinct isn't to flee — it's to use damage to push back or trade-kill the knocker. That's exactly what the strong teams on the board do.
5. TTK and damage-by-distance: a microscope on engagement quality
When you click into a single-match review, you'll also see two finer things:
- TTK (Time To Kill): how long from your first hit to the enemy going down. A short TTK means your burst output is concentrated; a long TTK usually means you fought in fits and starts, giving the enemy room to return fire or get revived.
- Damage-by-distance / hit-location heatmap: at what distances your damage happens, and where on the body it lands. It tells you "am I fierce up close, or only steady at mid-to-long range," helping you pick the right gun to drill and the right distance to fight.
Conclusion: don't read just one number
Condense this piece into one line — ADR tells you "are you doing enough damage," headshot rate and TTK tell you "are you accurate and fast enough," and knock-conversion and support rate tell you "are your results cashing in and are your teammates looked after."
Reading any single one in isolation will mislead you: a high headshot rate with low ADR may mean you're too passive; a high ADR with low conversion may mean you knock plenty but can't finish. Real improvement is making these numbers rise together.
Want to see what each of yours looks like? Enter your PUBG ID on L!NCHPIN and drill from the season overview down to the per-match engagement review — every number in this piece, marked on your own matches.