BGMI crosses 40 million downloads in just six weeks of unban

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Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI), which recently made a comeback in the Indian market, has leaped forward with record downloads. The popular mobile esports title has now crossed over 40 million downloads within just six weeks.

Krafton, BGMI’s developer and South Korean gaming giant, first launched BGMI in late 2020. The game also topped the charts for the game for the first week of its unban. It topped the charts for top free games within a week of its unban back in May 2023.

Notably, as per Business Standard, BGMI was unbanned as per Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology’s (MeitY) directives. It is worth mentioning that the ministry has unbanned the game for a temporary period of 100 days. MeitY will re-assess whether the game is safe and maintains privacy for the users.

The unban was followed by several big tournaments and in-game rewards to new and returning players. The numbers were expected, as the game was the most popular mobile esports title in India and had already amassed 100 million downloads before it was banned.

BGMI was introduced as an alternative option to PUBG Mobile, which was banned under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000 due to national security reasons. However, BGMI also faced the same ban shortly after release.

During the ban period, Krafton appealed to the government and let the fans know that they are working to bring the game back but declined any further comment on the topic.

Meanwhile, esports is slowly becoming mainstream in recent months. With BGMI’s unban, NODWIN gaming has also announced Season 2 of BGMS, which begins on August 4. Reportedly, the event will feature a prize pool of Rs 2.1 crore.

BGMI currently under MeitY’s close watch

After 10 months of being dormant, the game was unbanned but with some in-game censorship to violence and limited playtime to minors. The game usually remains on top 10 free games on play store as i quite popular as over 90% of the players use their mobile devices to play games.

Currently, the game is unbanned for three months temporary run, which is about to end. Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) have stated that further decision on permanent unban will be taken after the trial period is over.

The government is keeping a close eye on the game for possible user harm or addiction. The prevention methods used by the game may have worked, as no news related to BGMI addiction have surface during the unban period yet.

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