In a show of escalating force, India has banned 118 mobile apps from the entire country, following a massive ban that also took place back in June that claimed TikTok. India’s government cited “national security issues” as the reason for the ban, and it follows rising tensions between both India and China over clashes at their borders. This is a strong blow to China, as all of the apps were compliant and stored data correctly according to existing laws in India.
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In a move as BIG as the TikTok ban from June, India bans another 118 mobiles apps including PUBG which was the #1 title by downloads AND revenue in the entire country! Plus, Ubisoft may have accidentally leaked that the PS5 won’t be backward compatible with the PS3, PS2, or PS1. And, the Dallas Empire drop Clayster after winning back to back championships ahead of the move back to 4v4 competitive COD.
India Bans PUBG Mobile
PUBG Mobile was on that list, and while in the West we may not see that as massive, for the region it is absolutely stunning. PUBG Mobile is the largest title in both downloads and revenue for the entire country, with many esports stars making a career off that particular game alone instead of its console and PC version. While PUBG is a Korean IP, the mobile version is developed and published by Tencent, long the boogeyman of Chinese game development, and the Riot backing force known in the US. Also among the list of those 118 banned mobile apps are anything to do with Tencent or NetEase, meaning Arena of Valor, another popular Tencent mobile property, is Thanos snapped out of existence.
This is only going to get worse. Not only from a political standpoint of whether these border issues will be resolved without violence but more so, it will stunt a fledging esports scene from India and the surrounding areas. Many Indian teams are struggling to be able to find national legitimacy from their esports scenes and players, and they had finally found a strong foothold with the PUBG Mobile scene. Heck, it was so large that Dr. Disrespect streamed with a PUBG Mobile player to almost 400k people, and it wasn’t because the two of them wanted to talk about how much fun Fall Guys is.
This is a developing story, and we will for sure be bringing you any updates as they happen, including the probable retaliation from China in the mobile app world.
