How has BGMI Ban affected the Esports Ecosystem?

Battlegrounds Mobile India has been one of the most popular games of all time in the country. The game broke many records in just a few months of its launch. After all, it was also the most awaited games of the year. The developers of the game did a lot of efforts through which they would be able to build an Esports ecosystem for the game in the country. But unfortunately, after the game received another ban from the Government of India. This ban has largely affected the Indian Esports ecosystem which was growing to a great extent.

Before BGMI, the government had banned PUBG Mobile in the country during September 2020. The players had lost the hopes for getting the game back but Karfton had different plans and they did not wanted the Indian fans to remain sad. Therefore, they brought BGMI, which is also known by the name, “India ka Battlegrounds” in the month of June 2021. It has almost been a year to the game and it has received another ban from the Indian Government. And this time again, the reason for the ban is same as it was earlier for PUBG Mobile. 

The influencers and content creators are advising the players to wait for the game as it is soon expected to be back in the country. The developers are constantly communicating with the government to ensure that they take up necessary steps to unban the game as soon as possible. But, BGMI was one of the fastest growing Esports games in the country. For the very first time in India, any Esports event was hosted live on the Television. This marked the growth of the Indian Esports scenario but after the ban of the game, the Esports scenario of the game has been adversely affected.

Effects on Esports Ecosystem

Esports was one such term which people hardly knew about when it was the time of PUBG Mobile. But after the ban of PUBG Mobile, many players started to grind themselves and the country saw the rise of Esports in the Mobile games scenario. Players from different parts of the country started to compete against each other to show who is the best. This is where even the Indian Government started to recognize Esports due to which Esports became one of the growing sectors in the economy. PUBG Mobile Esports tournaments played a major role to enhance the Esports growth in the country.

Esports tournaments of PUBG Mobile made the players think that they can also perform in the Esports due to which many players started to come up. So, when BGMI was brought back to the country, the craze of Esports ensured that the game would reach heights if no one interfered. But unfortunately, the old issues which the Government had from the developers were yet not resolved due to which the Government has again banned BGMI in the country. We all know that the craze of Esports reduced in the country after the ban of PUBG Mobile. Now it seems that the same would be the situation after the ban of BGMI.

Many popular Esports personalities and content creators of BGMI reacted to the same and they told how the game ban will affect the Esports scenario. Here’s what Mortal said in one of his tweets-

"Really comes as a shocker because the Growth of Esports in India has been tremendous. All will come down to a stop if something happens to BGMI(Top esports game in India). Trust will be broken. People who HOPED, will remain hopeless. I hope you look into the matter @GoI_MeitY"

It has also been reported that the game was not banned immediately after a short discussion, the talks regarding the game ban had been going on since the last 5 months. The CEO of Sky Esports said that the Government had already warned Krafton regarding the same a few months ago and both the parties had been working to resolve the same. But when the Government saw that it is not being resolved, they thought of removing the application from Google Play Store and Apple App Store.