PUGB will no longer be accessible in India after the government banned it alongside other 118 mobile apps.
Reports have it that the wildly popular game was banned in its entirety. According to the government, PUGB Mobile is prejudicial to the sovereignty and integrity of the country.
India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology blocked the 118 mobile apps stating that they are also prejudicial to its defense, Security of State, and Public Order.
According to the ministry, several complaints had been received about the misuse of some mobile apps available on the Android and iOS platforms. The complaints were alleged stealing and unauthorized transmission of users’ data. These are alleged to be transferred to servers that had locations outside India.
PUGB confirmed the development in a tweet released earlier on Wednesday.
Amongst the banned are Baidu, Baidu Express Edition, Tencent Watchlist, FaceU, WeChat Reading and Tencent Weiyun, PUBG Mobile, and PUBG Mobile Lite.
The popularity of the game had brought about nearly 33 million active PUBG players in India.
It could be noted that the ban is traced to rising tensions between China and India. This is because a Chinese company, Tencent, owns the PUBG Mobile.
This is a sad one for the game which its popularity has faded in the United States and other Western countries. This is because most battle royale players arere now playing Fortnite or Warzone.
On its lunch in India, PUBG Mobile became a massive hit, recording 116 million downloads as of 2019. It was about 200 million before its ban.
Apart from its success in India, PUGB Mobile was also a hit in of itself worldwide, earning a staggering $1.5 billion in late 2019. India was part of the game’s success, with 21 percent of PUBG Mobile downloads coming from the country while China edged India in total purchases.
It could be recalled that PUBG was released in 2017. Even in the early access stage, it was a cultural phenomenon, being the first to gain such massive popularity worldwide.
Although PUGB Mobile wasn’t the first game in the battle royale genre, it paved the way for the smash hit Fortnite, and later Apex Legends and Call of Duty: Warzone.
India had in June banned 59 Chinese mobile applications. They include TikTok, UC Browser, and WeChat. The government cited security concerns.
