India was one of the major markets of PUBG Mobile with more than 175 million downloads and an active daily user base of over 13 million. However, in a heart-breaking move for PUBG lovers, government of India banned it after blocking several Chinese apps like TikTok and WeChat fearing a cycber attack from China.
PUBG enjoyed a glorious journey in the country and saw many ups and downs. Here’s a look at the rise and fall of PUBG in India.
The battle royale games trend took the worl by storm in 2017, following which PUBG Corp, in 2018, collaborated with Chinese game developer Tencent Games to release PUBG Mobile, a mobile version of the game. As soon as the mobile version was launched, the game became a hit in Asian countries including India.
In 2019, there was a fierce battle between PUBG Mobile and Free Fire in India. But during the first half of 2020, during the lockdown, PUBG Mobile soared into the No. 1 mobile games in the country having over five crore active players.
Soon, PUBG became a trend, a fashion, a phenomena in India. From kids to olds, people who were not aware of the game even wondered “Ye PUBG akhir hai kya?” PUBG-inspired memes, jokes and even funny TikTok videos used to do rounds on social media. The game was popular among students and even adults. In 2019, PM Modi in reply to a parent about the poor performance of her kid had asked, “”Ye PUBG wala hai kya?” and it went viral.
PUBG Mobile had a huge fan base not only in India but also in several other countries. However, there are many negative aspects of this game. Kids and teens were addicted to the game, which is all about violence. The addiction led to poor performance in studies and even effected their mental health.
There were several cases of suicides, depression and murder which had a connection to PUBG game. For instance, in 2019, a man seriously injured himself due to the addiction to PUBG Mobile. Few months later, a boy in Karnataka killed his dad for prohibiting him from playing the game.
