Indian government’s decision to ban PUBG has hit Tencent games very hard with the company losing as much as 14 billion in market value after its shares fell 2% on Thursday, snapping two straight sessions of gain. Notably, India is PUBG Mobile’s biggest market, accounting for roughly 175 million installs. Though PUBG was created by a South Korean gaming company, Tencent, one of China’s biggest gaming companies, bought its mobile version. The game has been in news for all the wrong reasons since its India debut but was finally banned on Wednesday evening. Notably, the game is also available on PC and gaming console but the ban has only been imposed on its mobile version.
According to a report by Zee Business TV, India was one of the biggest markets for PUBG with the game earning Rs 22,500 crore from the Indian market till July 2020. After this ban, China could be looking at a total loss of Rs 5,000 crore. The list of 118 mostly Chinese apps also includes those from Baidu and Xiaomi’s ShareSave, as India stepped up pressure on Chinese technology firms following a standoff with Beijing at the border. The move comes amid fresh border tensions with China in Ladakh when India foiled repeated attempts by Chinese troops to transgress into the Indian side of Line of Actual Control (LAC) with intentions to unilaterally change the status quo. Earlier on June 29, the government had banned 59 Chinese apps, including hugely popular TikTok and UC Browser, saying they were prejudicial to sovereignty, integrity and security of the country.