While there is no official statement from the IT ministry yet, the BGMI game has been confirmed to be removed from both Google Play store and Apple App store.
The Indian government has banned Krafton's Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI). Alphabet Inc's Google and Apple have taken down the Krafton game on July 28, 2022, citing orders from the Indian government. This development comes a year after the country banned popular game PUBG.
Government has issued a ban on the popular battle royale game Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) from South Korean game maker Krafton. The app has been removed by both Apple and Google app stores in India. While the BGMI app is no longer listed on Apple App Store and Google Play Store, the government so far has not made any statement on the banning of the BGMI app.
BGMI Ban In India
What did Krafton say about the Ban
What did Krafton say about the Ban
How PUBG became BGMI
The government said that these apps can carry out espionage and surveillance activities via camera/mic, accessing fine location (GPS) and do malicious network activity similar to previously blocked apps.
The ban on PUBG was a severe blow for Krafton as India was one of the biggest markets for the game maker. There were various PUBG tournaments organised in India. Post the ban on PUBG, Krafton cut its ties with Tencent Games.
The company announced that China's Tencent Games would no longer be authorised to distribute the PUBG MOBILE franchise in India. In July 2021, Krafton launched BGMI with tagline 'India ka Battle Grounds'. Earlier this month, the game hit 100 million registrations mark in India on Google Play Store.
Till now, the Government of India has banned more than 270 apps, suspecting the stealing of Indian users' data and sharing it with Chinese entities.