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PUBG
AbacusGames

PUBG Mobile players and streamers mourn India’s ban on the Tencent smartphone game amid tensions with China

  • India bans PUBG Mobile, PUBG Mobile Lite and more than 100 other mobile apps over security and sovereignty concerns
  • PUBG Mobile and related apps accumulated more than 175 million lifetime downloads in India, its largest market by install numbers

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A man looks at the download page for PUBG Mobile, owned by Chinese internet giant Tencent, in Apple’s App Store on an iPhone in New Delhi on September 2. Photo: AFP
Karen Chiu
When India banned TikTok in June, some PUBG Mobile players experienced a sense of schadenfreude. The blockbuster smartphone game, despite being published by Chinese tech titan Tencent, was spared from the original list. But gamers have now run out of luck.
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Late on Wednesday, India issued a sweeping ban on PUBG Mobile, PUBG Mobile Lite and 116 additional apps. The government’s move riled gamers and streamers who rushed to the internet to discuss a future without their favourite title.

“We don’t know what will happen next,” said Naman Mathur, better known by his online handle MortaL, in a video Wednesday night titled “Lets [sic] Calm down and talk”.

Since 2018, the 24-year-old YouTuber has been regularly streaming himself playing PUBG Mobile, attracting more than a million views on average for each video. He recently celebrated a new milestone: his YouTube channel hit 6 million subscribers last month.

“It’s not about PUBG Mobile here. It’s about everything. It’s about how we all stay together,” he said, adding that he still supports the government ban because of the “safety of the country”.

In a statement, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology said the ban is intended to protect the safety, security and sovereignty of Indian cyberspace, citing complaints from various sources about the misuse of some mobile apps. The restrictions follow rising tensions between India and China after a deadly border clash in May.

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