Why Google Play Store removed Garena Free Fire for Indian players?

Free Fire and its enhanced version were first removed from the Apple App Store on 12 February 2022. While the Battle Royale game has been taken down from the Google Play Store, its graphically superior version is still available for download.

When the game was unexpectedly removed from both stores, players were confused and expected some technical glitch to be at the root of the problem. However, when the servers became unavailable for a short period, mobile gamers came up with ban rumors.

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Free Fire’s unexpected removal

Ban rumors turned out to be true when it was revealed earlier today, 14 February 2022, that the Indian government had banned the battle royale game. Before the official ban was announced, both app stores removed it.

History seemed to be repeating itself as the Indian government had banned mobile applications in the past. PUBG Mobile and PUBG Mobile Lite were taken down during the first ban wave. Free Fire has been banned in the country, along with 53 other applications.

As per ET NOW, it has been revealed that the Chinese applications, along with clones of previously banned apps, were taken down. However, the exact cause of the ban of Free Fire is still a mystery to players as the game does not have a Chinese origin.

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Garena’s official statement

Garena’s official message with regards to the game’s disappearance (Image via Facebook)

Garena, the publisher of the game, first addressed the issue via a Facebook comment on the battle royale title’s official page. The statement mentioned players sharing the details of their network provider’s name and their connection details.

However, in light of recent developments, Garena, in an official statement to Sportskeeda Esports, stated the following:

“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.”

The servers of the Battle Royale game are still live, and players can still enjoy it. Much to the surprise of mobile gamers, Free Fire MAX is still available for download on the Google Play Store.