PUBG: Mobile changed the Indian Gaming Community

The Launch of PUBG: Mobile achieved many milestones, it wasn’t the first shooter game introduced to the players on smartphones. There were several shooting games already present on the market at time of its release, but the wave that it created for the mobile gaming scenario is surely huge.

The game was a variant of the Player’s Unknown Battlegrounds game published for Desktop, which caught the eyes of players and game enthusiast enough to drop it for the mobile users. It was received well throughout the world, but India, a country that wasn’t very prominent in the Esports tournaments benefited from this game unlike any other.

India is currently on the second place on the list of countries that spend most time on the game. So, what encouraged India to favour the game? And How did it change the Indian Gaming community for better?

There are several factors that favoured the game: -

• Availability- The main and foremost advantage for the game was its introduction to IOS and Android platforms. While the gaming titles such as Counter Strike gained immense popularity in the desktop line-up, they were unavailable to a major percentage of Indians who although had desktop at home but not specialized for gaming. In case of PUBG: Mobile, it was only a click away on their smartphones.

• Low Internet Usage-  While the desktop games consumed allot of data that was still expensive for the time, PUBG: Mobile was data efficient. The Mobile game consumed minimal of 30-32 Megabytes of data for an hour of intense gaming, on the other hand PUBG on desktop consumed allot of data when you want to play at good average ping. It also helped that Indian Telecommunication company, Reliance JIO Ltd., made the internet data packs cheaper for the country.

• Seamless Communication- PUBG: Mobile has introduced one of the best voice to voice communication module in the mobile gaming scenario. The Desktop games like Counter Strike series already used this technology, but it was unavailable in mobile games, PUBG: Mobile crossed this barrier and used it an advantage to garner more attention toward itself.

• Way of Income Generation- When the game begun getting momentum, there were several queries and theories relating to it. The money-minders used this as a means of income by uploading video answering those queries on YouTube. It can also be said that Indians were interested in watching the gameplay of ‘Pro-Players’ decimating their enemies, the trend was so high that Esports player were earning hefty amounts by just posting gameplay videos. 

• Fame- The Indian Gaming community flourished in this environment, even the players from other came caved in to the demand of the game. Players such as Naman Mathur (Mortal), Aaditya Sawant (Dynamo), Tanmay Singh (Scout), Jonatham Amaral (Jonathan) and many more gained overnight fame due to their gaming skills. Even today these players are celebrated as celebrity by their fans.

Although the game was banned by Indian Government in September 2022 due to concerns relating to National Security and data privacy breaches, it returned with a new title- Battlegrounds Mobile India, launched by a different publisher. 

It shows how popular this is game in the country. It has also opened the doors of India for other games, and vaulted the Indian Gaming Community as one of most important in the world. Because, you can’t deny that the game was earning too much from the country to let it go to waste due to the ban imposed on it.