The IT ministry gave a shock when it announced about banning the most popular game PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds or PUBG and 117 other apps on Wednesday. The ban includes names like Baidu, Tencent Watchlist, WeChat Reading, FaceU, and Tencent Weiyun, along with PUBG Mobile and PUBG Mobile Lite.
To give you an idea of how big PUBG has been for India, let us have a look at some of the facts about the game:
- According to App Annie, PUBG has over 50 million users in India of which around 35 million are active users. Some of these gamers have YouTube channels dedicated to live streaming their gameplay.
- PUBG was the front head when we talked about gaming tournaments in India. PUBG tournaments offered exciting cash prizes and even popular brands associated with the game for this.
- Even advertisers knew the popularity of and smartphone brands were keen to show how smoothly their devices can run PUBG. In fact, PUBG among the key factors that have made gaming smartphones popular in the country.
- In-app purchases are something that most Indians avoid but PUBG players used to spend huge for virtual items.
Well, it will be interesting to see how PUBG lovers will switch to other things and all we can hope that E-sports and Indian digital space will continue to rise even after this ban.
What are your thoughts on this whole thing? Share your views in the comments section.
