In September 2020, one of the most popular games Player Unknown’s Battleground, called PUBG was banned all over India by the orders of the Indian Government under section 69 A of the Information Technology Act, 2000. The game was taken down from Google Play Store and App Store. PUBG, along with 117 Chinese applications were taken down saying that they were a threat to India’s sovereignty and integrity. It was one of the fastest-growing games with over 33 million followers.
After being relaunched in November, the game was then banned permanently in June 2021, amid a controversy that said the game was sending data to Tencent-owned servers in India.
Soon after the ban, Krafton announced a completely similar version of PUBG, named Battle Grounds Mobile India, also called BGMI. The game got over 100 million players in a year.
Even after gaining such an amazing fanbase, the game was taken down by both the Google play store and Appstore on July 27, again due to government orders. In a statement, Krafton acknowledged the issues and stated that it was working to clarify how BGMI was removed from app stores and that further information will be released soon. Google said in a statement on the removal that it removed the game “following established process” after receiving an order.
Regarding the reasons the game was removed from the list, the government has not yet released any official explanations. Krafton revealed on Wednesday that it was talking to the authorities to clarify the situation.
