Being banned in India might be a tragedy for PUBG Mobile, but it actually sparks a thriving opportunity for other games. This makes sense, though, as mobile gamers were looking for alternatives to replace PUBG Mobile to play in their free time. And some mobile titles have benefited from this chance.

India issued the PUBG Mobile ban on September 2
India issued the PUBG Mobile ban on September 2

Currently, Call of Duty Mobile and Garena Free Fire are the two biggest rivals to PUBG Mobile even before it was banned. Therefore, when India issued the ban, these two games obviously experienced a huge increase in the number of downloads.

There’s no telling if PUBG Mobile may ever come back, so it’s not surprising that fans are switching to other games. So far, here are the three mobile games that have benefited the most from the PUBG Mobile ban.

Free Fire has got the most downloads following the ban
Free Fire has got the most downloads following the ban

Garena Free Fire

Since PUBG Mobile was banned, Free Fire got a lot more downloads within just four days from September 2. According to data from Entrackr, the game gained 2.1 million new downloads after the ban.

As of now, the game has been downloaded over 500 million times on the Google Play Store. Its popularity is clearly rising due to the absence of PUBG Mobile in the country.

call of duty
Call of Duty has got a lot of new downloads too

Call of Duty Mobile

The second most-benefited title following the ban on PUBG Mobile is COD Mobile. Within four days after the ban was issued, the game got downloaded 1.15 million times.

With the new downloads, the game now has more than 100 million downloads on the Play Store.

A terrible copy of PUBG Mobile
A terrible copy of PUBG Mobile

Pabje

If you don’t know this game, it’s an Indian clone of PUBG Mobile that was suddenly downloaded a lot after the original version was banned. The reason why this game got popular so quickly is probably that it showed up when people searched for PUBG Mobile.

The game got 100,000 new downloads but was savaged on the Play Store. Several gamers made fun of its graphics and in-app ads that interrupt the gameplay. Despite being the worst copy ever of PUBG Mobile, it got to far more players than before due to the ban.

These examples indicate how much trouble China has caused itself. It’s undeniable that the gaming industry in India is growing fast with the second-largest population in the world and a large part of PUBG Mobile players are in the country. With an expected 300 million gamers, international investors have realized the potential of the Indian market and begun to pour money here while China is forced to leave for messing up with India.

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