Free Fire is among the latest applications that the Indian Ministry of Electronics and IT banned in the country a few days back. The ban was majorly focused on Chinese apps that were “allegedly indulged in collecting sensitive user data. Hence, the reason given for the ban was related to security concerns. GARENA Free Fire Ban in India: server status network issue.

However, in the case of Free Fire, the BR shooter is not Chinese like most other apps on the ban list. The popular game does share some links with the Chinese multinational conglomerate Tencent. The publishers and developers of Free Fire have connections with other Southeast Asian countries.

Readers can find out more about the survival shooter’s developers and publishers in the next part of this article.

Free Fire ban in India

Server status and network issues

Before the announcement of the ban Free Fire was pulled from both the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store causing consternation among game enthusiasts. As of now, the game is not available for download on any platform. GARENA Free Fire ban in India: server status, network issue.

Those who already had the game installed on their smartphones can still play it as per usual, which suggests that the game’s servers are still accessible by the Indian players. That said, users on some networks are reportedly struggling to access the online game, indicating that a few providers have already blocked it. Also, the error while making the top-up still exists.

Regardless of whether or not this version of the game is available to players, they should avoid playing it since the Government has blocked it.

Strangely enough Free Fire MAX was not added to the list of banned applications and remains accessible on the Google Play Store as of this writing. While players may temporarily switch to this version, uncertainty surrounds its future as well, given that both versions use the same servers and have the same mechanics.

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What after the ban?

Garena remained silent on the subject until the game was finally banned. The developers then said in a statement that they were aware of the game’s unavailability to users in India and that they were working to address the problem.

Garena Free Fire: Why was it banned?

Garena Free Fire, along with 53 other apps was banned by the Government of India in order to disclosed on Monday. In a statement, the government mentioned, “These 54 apps allegedly obtain various critical permissions and collects sensitive user data. These collected real-time data are being misused and transmitted to servers located in hostile country. The government also mentioned that there may be serious breaches of security and espionage that these apps may carry out via the camera/ microphone, GPS, and malicious network activities.

The government’s statement further added. These apps were allegedly engaged in activities prejudicial to the sovereignty and integrity of the country also posing serious threat to Security of the State and defense of India. Google informed Gadgets 360 that it temporarily blocked access to GARENA Free Fire from Google Play store, specifically, the Illuminate version. GARENA Free Fire Max for premium devices is still listed for download on the Google Play Store.

Garena Free Fire Max and Free Fire Illuminate are essentially the same games but the former has some gameplay enhancements. It offers better graphics and gameplay compared to Free Fire Illuminate.

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Separately, the ban on Garena Free Fire comes after PUBG developer Krafton filed a lawsuit against Garena, Apple, and Google. Krafton claims that Garena copied its popular battle royale title.

As mentioned, Garena Free Fire started gaining popularity in India after the government banned the popular PUBG: Mobile along with PUBG: Mobile Lite and 116 other apps that had connections to China.

Garena has released a brief statement in response to the development: “We are aware that Free Fire is currently unavailable in the Google Play and iOS app stores in India and that the game is currently not operable for some users in the country. We are working to address this situation, and we apologize to our users for any inconvenience.”

Garena Free Fire: 5 alternatives

Since GARENA Free Fire has banned in India, here is a list of other battle Royale games you can play instead.

Battlegrounds Mobile India

The original app to get banned by Government of India. PUBG Mobile – returned to Indian shores renamed as Battlegrounds Mobile India. The app made concessions to abide by Government of India’s laws when it relaunched last year.

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New State Mobile

New State Mobile is the second game that KRAFTON launched in India post the ban on PUBG Mobile. This is set in 2051 and features futuristic weapons and vehicles. The game was recently renamed from PUBG: New State to New State Mobile.

Call of Duty Mobile

Developed by Activision in collaboration with Tencent. Call of Duty Mobile can downloaded more than 100 million times in the first week of its launch.

Fortnite Mobile

The popular battle Royale game has been out for a while now. Fortnite also supports cross platform play. This helps mobile players to play with their friends who may have it on their consoles or PC.

Pixel’s Unknown Battle Ground

Themed to look like PUBG Mobile, Pixel’s Unknown Battlegrounds has more than 50 million downloads on Google Play store.