The Battle royale genre was born from an interesting mix between competitive and arcade-like multiplayer experiences, alongside some light survival elements like gathering loot and better tools. Games like H1Z1 and DayZ were prime examples of where the battle royale subgenre originated from, with many features from these games inspiring titles like Apex Legends and Warzone. The Last of Us is not like those games, though there are elements of survival horror that are relatively similar to battle royale games: looting ammo and weapons in the world, investigating abandoned buildings, and other tangentially similar elements of gameplay.
However, the first The Last of Us game's Factions multiplayer would actually make a lot of sense with a battle royale mode. Given the survival horror nature of the game in general, alongside the existing iteration of Factions' multiplayer offering, there's certainly room for some battle royale experimentation. Apparently Naughty Dog was on a similar wavelength, because datamined files of The Last of Us 2 contain several unused items that seem to hint at some kind of multiplayer functionality. The biggest evidence was a map that seemed to display several landmark areas of The Last of Us 2's world, meaning a battle royale could be on the way for multiplayer.
A Battle Royale Makes Sense for The Last of Us, Factions
When taking into consideration how Factions could potentially innovate and change with The Last of Us' sequel, a battle royale kind of makes sense. Granted fans likely aren't expecting 150 players dropping into Seattle any time soon, but a microcosmic version of that could potentially be an enticing mode alongside Factions. Both on a physical level, as well as the playerbase, a battle royale mode in the The Last of Us would not be nearly as large as any mainstream option. Considering The Last of Us remains a PlayStation exclusive, and The Last of Us fans don't necessarily encapsulate Factions fans as well, it would be a very niche battle royale, even if it's free.
However, on a smaller scale with the excellently refined gameplay of The Last of Us 2, adding a battle royale (or battle royale-esque experience) would likely build on the established foundation that Factions has already set. For example, conceptually speaking, The Last of Us 2's battle royale could function in an Escape from Tarkov-esque formula, where players have to accomplish certain tasks and exfiltrate, rather than just being the last survivor standing by the end of the game. The Last of Us 2's existing environments in the campaign lend themselves well to that design, since many of the environments in Seattle and beyond are very sandbox-like and open-ended.
Datamine Suggests The Last of Us Multiplayer May Include Battle Royale
Datamined content revealed that a battle royale was presumably planned for The Last of Us 2 at some point prior to the game's release. Players discovered a map that exists in the games files that seems to indicate landmarks that could be spotted throughout the game's campaign; like the motel Joel and Ellie explore in a flashback, or the same port where Abby chases down Tommy in Seattle. The map itself is a physical prop in the game files, presumably pulled out and looked at previously, similar to the many times Ellie can do so in The Last of Us 2's story. The map itself is large enough that this asset in-game could be indicating some kind of sandbox multiplayer mode.
Beyond the map itself, a few other assets were discovered that were not used in singleplayer, potentially hinting at possible multiplayer assets. An unsual and untextured object named "listen-mode-device" seems to be some kind of helmet or equipment that players could operate to use listen mode, which focuses the player's hearing to spot enemies. Additionally, there's an untextured "collar" object, which could be in relation to dogs (controllable, NPCs, or otherwise) to be utilized in multiplayer. There's also a "handheld-tv" object, which could potentially serve as some kind of camera equipment for players to recon areas. Each datamined file has the same "mp" denotation, which is presumed to be multiplayer.
Potential Fan Interest With The Last of Us 2 Battle Royale
Then again, all of this datamined evidence could potentially just be reserved for the upcoming Factions-esque multiplayer that's currently in development at Naughty Dog. There's nothing specifically tying these datamined assets to a battle royale mode, but the implications are certainly there. Players being able to examine a large scale map in real time, along with the other equipment, seems to hint at some kind of large scale sandbox mode coming to The Last of Us 2's multiplayer.
Of course, the question still remains whether or not The Last of Us fans are willing and excited to try out a battle royale based on Naughty Dog's zombie survival horror experience. Especially with the lack of a proper Factions sequel so far, it's unclear if the interest is still there for The Last of Us fans to try something new. Existing Factions fans still hold a reverance for the original The Last of Us Factions mode, even though multiplayer servers were shut down relatively recently. Considering fans don't have a modern equivalent to compare to the original Factions, experimenting even further with a battle royale mode should prove interesting, assuming the interest is there.
The Last of Us 2's Factions multiplayer is in development.
Source: Speclizer (via YouTube)