Will Garena Free Fire rise Phoenix-like from ashes as PUBG Mobile did in BGMI avatar?

The journey of PUBG Mobile to Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) shows that not all hope is lost after the Garena Free Fire ban in India. However, it is going to be tough

Garena Free Fire ban may have disheartened gamers, but it remains to be seen if it can effect a ‘Pheonix-out-of-ashes’ comeback like PUBG Mobile India did in the avatar of Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) (Garena Free Fire)

The Chinese app massacre on Valentine's day by India saw the popular gaming app Garena Free Fire banned is eerily familiar to the wide-scale Chinese app ban by the Centre in 2020. Even back then, the very popular online battle royale game PUBG Mobile India was banned to the dismay of the gaming community. However, one year later in July 2021, PUBG Mobile game made a comeback, albeit in a new avatar as BGMI. Now that Garena Free Fire has had a ban slapped on it, the question in the gaming community is- can it also make a comeback like PUBG Mobile? Notably, BGMI or Battlegrounds Mobile India has instantly become one of the most downloaded battle royale games in India.

In both instances, 2020 and 2022, the government said that these apps have a Chinese connection and pose a threat to the national security of India. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) ordered the ban under Section 69A of the IT Act, 2000. Many of these applications were downloaded more than a million times, Garena Free Fire was the most popular title to face the ban. According to analytics firm App Annie, out of its 75 million global active users, 40 million came from India, reports TechCrunch. This was a similar situation for PUBG Mobile India in 2020 when it also lost a large user base due to the ban.

How PUBG Mobile India made its BGMI comeback

problem with PUBG Mobile was that it had links with Chinese company Tencent, even though the owner of the original console and desktop game was the South Korean firm KRAFTON. Tencent is the second largest shareholder of KRAFTON with a 15.5 per cent stake in the company after the founder and chairman of the South Korean company Chang Byung-gyu (16.4 per cent stake). And Tencent also received the permission of the original publishers to develop the mobile game.

After the ban, KRAFTON developed Battlegrounds Mobile India. Significantly, barring a few cosmetic changes, it is an exact replica of PUBG Mobile India. BGMI was released in July 2021 and has become quite a success. Today, it has more than 50 million downloads on Google Play Store itself and has restored its previous popularity to a significant level.

But what does all this mean for Garena Free Fire? Will there be an Indian avatar of Garena Free Fire after the ban?

Well, to begin with, Sea Limited, the parent company of Garena Free Fire, is not a Chinese company. It is registered in Singapore. Similarly, the founder of the company Forrest Li, while born in China, is at present citizen of Singapore. As such, it does appear that Garena Free Fire has fewer hurdles to cross in order to regain access to the Indian demographic. However, it is still too early to predict what concerns the government saw to ban the app and what would it require to be done for Garena Free Fire to make a comeback. However, it cannot be denied that Free Fire's significant portion of the revenue and traffic came from India and it will be a foothold it would not want to lose.