Garena Free Fire was one of many apps banned by the Indian government earlier this week on national security grounds. While the majority of the other apps are less well-known, Garena Free Fire was a popular game. After Garena Free Fire was banned and removed from the Google Play Store, the developers stated that they are working to resolve the issue. This ban, however, has left a significant void for mobile gamers who enjoy the popular battle royale game.

Is there a Chinese connection to Free Fire?

Free Fire is being regarded as one of the best battle royale games so far for low end devices. Singapore is the country that created Free Fire. It was developed by Sea Ltd, a Singapore-based company. Forrest Li, the company's founder, is the current CEO of Garena Free Fire. Forrest Li was born in China, but he moved to Singapore and is now a resident of the country with Singaporean citizenship.

You could argue that Garena is a Singapore-based company. However, Tencent, a Chinese multinational corporation, is said to own around 18.7 percent of Garena. PUBG was also banned due to Tencent's involvement, and concerns about privacy and security led to a ban. However, it is worth noting that Tencent owned only 15% of BGMI Parent Company Krafton, compared to 18.7% of Garena. But, taking only this point into consideration doesn't stand in credibility since Tencent is a global player in the Game publishing Industry and has a connection with every major production company. Even Tencent funds major Indian startups and has active stakes in ownerships

Can Free fire make Comeback like BGMI in Indian Market?

Following the ban of PUBG Mobile, KRAFTON created Battlegrounds Mobile India. Significantly, with the exception of a few cosmetic changes, it is a carbon copy of PUBG Mobile India. BGMI was released in July 2021 and has proven to be a huge success. It now has over 50 million downloads on the Google Play Store alone, restoring its previous popularity to a significant level.

Garena Free Fire's parent company, Sea Limited, is not a Chinese company. It is based in Singapore. Similarly, Forrest Li, the company's founder, was born in China but is now a Singaporean citizen. As a result, it appears that Garena Free Fire will face fewer obstacles in regaining access to the Indian market.

However, it is still too early to predict what concerns the government had that led to the app's ban and what would need to be done for Garena Free Fire to resurface. However, it cannot be denied that a significant portion of Free Fire's revenue and traffic came from India, and this is a foothold that the company does not want to lose.