Wondering why you aren’t able to play or even find the Garena Free Fire game on either of the app stores? There might just be a piece of unfortunate news for you. According to reports, the game is reportedly banned in India. Yes, once again news of the Chinese apps ban in India has come out. Although there is no confirmation, there is a good chance it might just be true. Especially considering the disappearance of this widely popular game from both the app store of Apple and Google. Here’s what we know so far:
Since the ban order reports have surfaced, several Indian players have reported login issues on Garena Free Fire’s official Discord channel. Fans of the game have also posted a flurry of tweets about the sudden absence of it. Moreover, several other titles have also apparently been removed from both Google Play and Apple App stores. According to ET Now, a total of 50 apps of Chinese origin are facing the ban.
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Garena Free Fire Banned in India: Why?
This new ban includes apps that were earlier banned but had returned to the stores as clones. In any case, before this, 270 apps had gone out of the two stores in the country. And this new list brings that up to 320. Earlier in 2020, the MeiTY issued the ban order claiming these apps were transferring sensitive data of Indian citizens to servers in China. Once again in 2022, these 50 apps are also facing the ban due to these same claims.
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Since Tencent owns over 25 per cent shares in Garena Free Fire’s publisher Garena, it could also be a reason for it to be on the list. It’s unclear how Garena and Tencent would tackle the ban. The game already has a massive player base in the country. Players have spent countless hours and a lot of money on in-game battle passes and cosmetics.
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However, it could look at making a comeback in the country similar to what happened with PUBG Mobile. Krafton took over as the publisher and rebranded the game to Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) as an exclusive experience for Indian players. Garena is expected to make an official announcement about the Garena Free Fire ban soon.
Sushmita Choubey
Marketer to the core, a writer from the soul. Engineer and an MBA turned budding tech writer - dabbling her hands in all genres of writing from tech to fiction. If not writing, you will always find me reading anything and everything. Otherwise, you will find me learning new languages.