Garena Free Fire banned in India? PUBG rival missing from Google Play Store, App Store

Garena Free Fire appears to be missing from Google Play Store and Apple's App Store.

New Delhi: Garena Free Fire, a popular battle royale mobile game, appears to have been removed from Google Play Store and Apple App Store. The development comes after PUBG developer Krafton had filed a complaint against Garena Free Fire. 

Krafton had last month filed two separate lawsuits seeking a ban on Garena Free Fire. The Korean developer had alleged that Garena is copying the game designs and elements from PUBG Mobile.  

Moreover, Krafton had filed a separate lawsuit against Google and Apple for hosting Garena Free Fire on their app stores. The PUBG developer had also named YouTube in its lawsuit for allowing streamers to stream Garena Free Fire on the video platform. 

“Free Fire and Free Fire Max extensively copy numerous aspects of Battlegrounds, both individually and in combination, including Battlegrounds’ copyrighted unique game-opening ‘airdrop’ feature, the game structure and play, the combination and selection of weapons, armour, and unique objects, locations, and the overall choice of colour schemes, materials, and textures," Krafton’s lawsuit had read. 

At this point, however, it’s not known if the game is removed from Play Store based on the lawsuits or due to some other developments. It is also not known if the users who had installed the game are still able to play the game or not. 

Meanwhile, the enhanced version of Garena Free Fire - Garena Free Fire Max - remains available on Google Play but is missing from the Apple App Store. 

Garena Free Fire had gained popularity in India after the Indian government had banned PUBG Mobile India in 2020 on concerns related to national security and user privacy. 

Garena Free Fire had emerged as the most downloaded mobile game worldwide for December 2021 with close to 24 million installs, which represented a 28.2 per cent increase from December 2020, IANS had reported. Also Read: 50% discount on Amazon Prime membership for select users, check how to avail offer

The countries with the most installs of the app during this period were India at approximately 26 per cent of its total downloads and Brazil at 12 per cent, according to a report by Sensor Tower. Also Read: Central Bank of India, UCO Bank FD interest rates changed, check new rates