PUBG removed from App Store and Google Play Store following ban in India

By Stephen Warwick
published

PUBG Mobile
PUBG Mobile (Image credit: Harish Jonnalagadda / iMore)

What you need to know

  • PUBG Mobile has been removed from app stores in India.
  • Both Apple and Google have removed the app.
  • It comes after India's government added the title to a list of Chinese apps banned in the country.

Apple and Google have complied with a recent Indian government ban on PUBG mobile, removing the app from their respective app stores.

The ban was announced earlier this week, from that report:

The Indian government's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has banned 118 apps — primarily of Chinese origin — as tensions between India and China escalate. Both countries have engaged in a border skirmish for several months, and the Indian government banned TikTok, WeChat and other services earlier this year.The latest ban includes 118 apps, with PUBG Mobile and PUBG Mobile Lite standing out in the list.

PUBG Mobile is the biggest mobile game in India with more than 50 million monthly active players, but has fallen foul of government bans on primarily Chinese apps, PUBG Mobile is made by Tencent Games.

A new report from 91mobiles says that following the ban on Wednesday, Apple and Google have both removed both PUBG Mobile and PUBG Mobile Lite from their respective app stores in the country:

PUBG Mobile has been removed from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. The popular battle royale game was pulled from the App Store late night on Thursday and from the Google Play Store on Friday morning following a directive by the Indian government. This means that you will not be able to install PUBG Mobile on your iOS or Android device.

Currently, you can still currently play PUBG Mobile if you already have it installed, however, the report notes it is likely that ISPs will also begin to block server access to both PUBG Mobile and PUBG Mobile Lite in the country. The report notes that it is unclear at this time whether using a VPN app will bypass these further measures. For the time being, Android users still have the option to sideload the game. With both PUBG and Fortnite now unavailable to many iOS and Android users, many people have started looking elsewhere for their battle royale fix. Best PUBG Mobile & Fortnite alternatives: CoD Mobile, Free Fire, Battlelands Royale, and more

Stephen Warwick
Stephen Warwick
News Editor

Stephen Warwick has written about Apple for five years at iMore and previously elsewhere. He covers all of iMore's latest breaking news regarding all of Apple's products and services, both hardware and software. Stephen has interviewed industry experts in a range of fields including finance, litigation, security, and more. He also specializes in curating and reviewing audio hardware and has experience beyond journalism in sound engineering, production, and design.

Before becoming a writer Stephen studied Ancient History at University and also worked at Apple for more than two years. Stephen is also a host on the iMore show, a weekly podcast recorded live that discusses the latest in breaking Apple news, as well as featuring fun trivia about all things Apple.