PUBG: Mobile has been blocked in India by the government over 'security concerns'

The massively popular battle royale game has been blocked in India
PUBG Corporation/Tencent Games
Jack Webb @JackWebb9211 September 2020

Popular battle royale game PlayerUnknown's Battleground: Mobile (PUBG) has been banned in India along with 118 other Chinese-owned apps.

The game has been banned by order of the Indian government over escalating tensions with China, after American intelligence sources claimed that there was a confrontation in the area of Ladakh.

PUBG was among 118 other apps which were also banned by India, citing the "interest of the country's sovereignty, integrity, defence and security," the government said in a statement.

The game is massively popular in India and NDTV reports that over 13 million people log into the app on a daily basis there.

This is how PUBG looks on mobile devices
PUBG Corporation/Tencent Games

PUBG: Mobile has been something of a sleeper hit for mobile gaming, since being released on mobile in 2018, it has gone to top 400 million downloads as of last June.

According to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, the battle royale title has been banned along with others under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act.

The government said that the game that “engaged in activities which are prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, the security of the state and public order”.

Among others blocked include video games, online banking services, dating apps and more.

This seems to be the second wave of bans on certain apps to hit India, as something similar happened back in June.

It was during this time the government banned 59 mobile apps like TikTok, UC Browser and WeChat over security concerns.

This latest swathe of blocking apps comes after the Indian government accused Chinese troops of entering territories in an act of provocation against India.

These supposed incursions have led to a series of clashes between China and India in recent weeks, mostly located in eastern Ladakh.

The Standard Online has reached out to PUBG Corporation and Tencent for a comment regarding this.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in