Garena Free Fire, a popular battle royale game, has been banned in India due to national security threats. The app, along with 53 Chinese apps, had been banned by the Indian government earlier today amid political tensions with China. This is the fifth crackdown on Chinese apps since November 2020, when the government blocked 43 apps citing national security risks. However, there is one thing that is quite interesting, Garena Free Fire is not a typical “Chinese application” like the one developed by Singapore-based SEA Limited.
This time the most surprising was Garena Free Fire which gained immense popularity after the banning of the original PUBG Mobile and PUBG Mobile Lite in September 2020. Even though Krafton launched Battlegrounds India last year and PUBG New State earlier this year, Garena Free Fire has kept it up. loyal fan base.
Also Read: Garena Free Fire Ban: This is what Garena said after the game was banned by the government in India.
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What is Garena Free Fire?
Simply put, Garena Free Fire is a battle royale type mobile game where 50 players compete in a deathmatch. Players are thrown from planes unarmed, and to ensure their survival, they must kill other players. There are guns all over the map, and you pick up your opponent’s artillery after killing them.
Not only in India, Garena Free Fire also remains the top mobile battle royale game in the United States. The app growth tracker Sensor Tower said Garena Free Fire overtook Tencent’s PUBG Mobile in player spend in the US in the first quarter of 2021. Additionally, the stock title recorded one billion downloads on Google Play in January 2022, becoming the “first mobile battle royale game”. to reach this milestone”.
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What is going on ?
Garena Free Fire and enhanced versions of Garena Free Fire Max remain banned from the Apple App Store. The Max version, however, remains available for download on Google Play and users can still play the game on their smartphones. It’s unknown if the vanilla version of Garena Free Fire will still be playable on smartphones, but the servers will likely crash soon. The same goes for Chinese apps that were banned in India in 2020.
Interestingly, the official website of the Garena Free Fire distributor, Garena International, states that the company is based in Singapore. However, the company did not specify why his name was highlighted in the government’s list of banned Chinese applications.
Furthermore, Garena’s ban in India comes a month after the lawsuit filed by PUBG makers Krafton was published. Krafton claims Garena copied PUBG elements and should be banned from Google Play and the App Store. He also sued Google and Apple for failing to take action against Garena.
Alternatives to Garena Free Fire
If you are a fan of battle royale games on smartphones, the good news is that PUBG Mobile is back in India in the form of BGMI and PUBG New State. Users can also play Call of Duty, although the game is heavy and might not run smoothly on budget smartphones.
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