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From children to adult people and even superstars like MS Dhoni, everyone has been getting addicted to battle royale games, especially PUBG Mobile. With a fanbase of more than 5 crore players and counting, India used to be one of the biggest markets of PUBG Mobile in terms of the number of users. However, the blossom of PUBG Mobile in India suddenly came to an end because of the ban from the government.
Along with many other Chinese apps like Tik Tok, WeChat, and many others, the game as well as its Lite version has been locked out of the country in the fear of a cyber attack from China. Despite being cut short, PUBG Mobile has a glorious journey in India. Today, let’s take a look back at the rise and fall of PUBG Mobile in India and how it became the no.1 popular mobile game in our country after just a few years.
PUBG Mobile to lead the wave of mobile games in India
Following the trend of battle royale games that have taken the world by storm since 2017, 2018 PUBG Corp in collaboration with Chinese game developer Tencent Games released the mobile version of the game titled PUBG Mobile. The game became popular in Asian countries including India with more and more new players to get on board.
While 2019 saw a fierce competition between the two major royale battle games PUBG Mobile and Free Fire in India, it was in the first half of 2020 - the quarantine time that PUBG Mobile soared into the no.1 mobile games in India with more than 5 core active players.
"Ye PUBG wala hai kya?"
After the release, PUBG mobile was a true phenomenon in India, in other words, it was ‘in fashion’. The game is popular among high school students, college students, adults, and many famous people. Back in 2019, in replying to a parent about the poor performance of her son, PM Modi asked a question that went viral and became the ‘meme of the year’: "Ye PUBG wala hai kya?"
With appealing graphics, fast-paced gameplay, and a lot of both online and offline events, PUBG Mobile has developed a huge and strong community not only in India but in many other countries. According to Tencent, the game surpassed more than 17.5 core downloads in India and had more than 5 core active users in the country.
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The PUBG Mobile depression
As smartphones are getting much cheaper, it's been easier than ever for a kid to own one and get access to the internet as well as mobile games. As a result, there are more and more kids and teens who are found getting addicted to mobile games. The problem was worse as it was all about violence. Apart from the poor study performance, the game was said to have serious problems with their mental health.
There were endless cases of murders, suicides, and depression which had a connection to this viral video game. Back in 2019, a man in Jammy was found badly injured due to his immense addiction to PUBG Mobile. A few months later, the whole country was in shock as a boy in Karnataka killed his father as the man prohibited him from playing the game.
The latest tragic case relating to PUBG Mobile: PUBG Mobile Ban In India Causes 21-Year-Old IT Student To Suicide
The fall of PUBG Mobile
It wasn't the first time PUBG Mobile was banned in India. Many parents and authorities have been calling out for years for a nationwide PUBG ban. Some people stated that the game is 'as addictive as drug' and it makes children lose their interest in studying. Having a negative impact on the youth and being developed by a Chinese company, the controversial mobile game face was banned in some cities in India for a few weeks. However, the ban was lifted a few weeks later.
Finally, in September 2020, PUBG Mobile was officially banned in India along with other 188 apps that belong to Chinese companies due to the high tension between India and China. Although many efforts have been made to uplift the ban and PUBG Corp to talk to Reliance Jio about passing the publishing rights of the game to an Indian partner. However, the two parties failed to make a deal so PUBG Corp has turned to another telecom company Airtel to seek another door. In addition to that, at the moment, the Indian Government remained unchanged over the decision.
Also read: Falling To Make A Deal With Jio, PUBG Owner Is Talking To Airtel To Bring PUBG Mobile Back To India
While PUBG Mobile players are still looking for the game to come back, they need to move to other games like PUBG Mobile like Free Fire or Call of Duty Mobile. In addition to that, the ban of PUBG Mobile also makes room for other new game developers to join especially the Indian one nCore Games with their upcoming FAU-G. It seems like PUBG Mobile is really had a hard time in India and its vague future has yet to be unveiled.
Above is all you need to know about the rise and fall of PUBG Mobile in India. Let's hope for the best thing to come to PUBG Mobile and the gaming community in India can have a chance to play it in the near future. Visit our website Gurugamer.com for more interesting news about games and entertainment!
Also read: Indian Government Has No Plan For PUBG Mobile Unban, Is There Any Hope Left?