PUBG Mobile Journey
Let's start with a little introduction just to bring more relatability for people who were not affected by Player’s Unknown Battleground ( PUBG ). The beta version was launched on the 23rd of March 2017 in the form of PUBG PC.
The parent company is Bluehole and the game was launched under the subsidiary name of PUBG Corporation. The creation is credited to Brendan Greene who was inspired by the Japanese Movie, Battle Royale which was released in 2000.
Like any other PC game, only a few privileged people in India could afford to play the game, but at that point in time, no one had a clue that this game was going to sweep through the Indian gaming industry and be the highest grosser even till date. The full PC version was released on 20th December 2017. The game had a steady growth in India but nothing out of ordinary was happening.
The boom happened on Feb 9, 2018, when the mobile version of PUBG was launched across android and iOS and it was a free-to-play Battle Royale game with in-game purchases enabled. This was launched in collaboration with Tencent games, a Chinese company, and Krafton Gaming Inc, a South Korean Company.
Before dwelling into details let us be clear what Battle Royale means. According to the Dictionary definition, quote, “battle royale is a fiercely contested fight or dispute”, but according to ancient Japanese tradition, it refers to a fight involving many combatants that is fought until only one fighter remains standing. Keeping this in the back of mind Brendan Greene created a virtual space for the same.
PUBG Mobile
Dwelling into more specific details about the PUBG mobile and then we will move onto why this game became an instant hit in India. Some basic facts about the game are that other than players there is a Red Zone at random places where airstrikes are carried out and when you see the mark, it's better to take shelter somewhere because airstrikes are carried out to eliminate unsuspecting players.
Red Zone
Also, there is a Blue Zone that keeps shrinking at specific times to random locations, the players are supposed to be inside the zone to avoid damage. If you stay too long out in the blue zone you will keep on receiving damage in increasing proportion and will eventually be killed.
Blue Zone
One should also keep an eye on the Gift Boxes namely Air Drops dropped between the matches which contain guns having higher damage than any other available in PUBG Mobile and are exclusively called drop guns. The Drops also contain the highest level of Helmet and vest available to keep your chances of being alive slightly higher.
AirDrop
Later Flare Gun was added to the collection to make the game more balanced, its main purpose was that you can use it to bring your very own airdrop.
Flare Gun
There are 4 modes in which the game can be played namely :
The classic Battle Royale has 100 players per match except for Karakin and Livik, these maps have 64 players. The players can play in either TPP (Third Person Perspective) or FPP (First Person Perspective ). The classic mode has 5 different maps, containing different terrain, inspired by different locations around the globe and have different dimensions. The players can play Battle Royale in three different modes namely solo, duo or squad. There are different levels referred to as tiers,and with each tier, the difficulty increases, the points to move to the next tier depend on the number of kills, time of survival and ranking in a particular match. The tiers in ascending order are Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, Crown, Ace and Conqueror. Each level has 5 sub tiers except for Ace which has stars ( eg — Ace 1 star, Ace 2 star, so on and so forth ) and conquerors are the top 500 players in Ace higher tier which is revised on a daily basis.
Tiers
The maps and their details are as below :
(i) Erangel
Dimension : 8km x 8km
Terrain: Cities and towns over vast greenlands (Includes Military Base )
Inspiration: Pripyat and Chernobyl, Russia
Erangel
(ii) Miramar
Dimension : 8km x 8km
Terrain: Towns and cities scattered over the desert
Inspiration: Mexico
Miramar
(iii) Sanhok
Dimension : 4km x 4km
Terrain: Lush green with towns
Inspiration: Rainforests of Southeast Asia Region, Philippines and Thailand
Sanhok
(iv) Vikendi
Dimension : 6km x 6km
Terrain: Snowy with cities and towns
Inspiration: Island in the Adriatic Sea
Vikendi
(v) Livik
Dimension : 2km x 2km
Terrain: Mixture of snow and greenery
Inspiration: Northeastern European (Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Netherlands)
Livik
(vi) Karakin
Dimension : 2km x 2km
Terrain: Deserted Island with 3 major towns
Inspiration: North African Islands
Karakin
2. Arcade
This mode contains 3 styles in which it can be played, namely Quick Match which is 8 min match with a much smaller playing area due to blue zone , one can get the feeling of a real battle royale here before entering the actual classic mode. There are just 28 people who can participate in a single match in this style. The next is Sniper Training, as the name suggests you can either use Bolt Action Rifles or Automatic Sniper Rifles and the playing area is just double of what it is in Quick Match for an immersive experience of sniping, it also contains 40 players in a single match. Last but not least is the War Style, which can offer you any gun available, an infinite number of respawns, your main objective is to eliminate as many players as you can and keeping your teammates alive in the process. The number of players in a single match is 20.
Quick Match Aerial View
Sniper Training
3. Evoground
Currently, this mode has only one style of play which is similar to full-fledged Classic Erangel except that in addition to normal match it contains Helicopter and Rocket Launchers. The number of players who can participate is 100.
Payload
4. Arena
This mode has 5 different styles of play namely Arena Training, Domination, Assault, Team Death Match and Gun Game. They are 4 vs 4 matches with a typical duration of 10 minutes and a certain number of kills that one has to attain to win the match, different modes offer different guns, different maps and different experiences. Mainly players can use it as a part of training mode before going into an actual match.
Domination
Gun Game Library
Team Death Match & Arena
Ruins
Now coming back to the main question, why this game became an instant hit in India?
The answer lies in the fact that it could be played over any android or iOS device for free and these are readily available in India, apart from that the launch of Reliance Jio and affordable data packs in India also helped in the boom. Not everyone can afford a high-end PC but 42% out of 136 crore people have smartphones, and you can do the math accordingly. As of 2020, India alone accounted for more than 175 million downloads and 24% of all the players globally were Indians. Apart from this what PUBG Mobile did exceedingly well was that they managed to build an Esports Ecosystem around the game. Now with the prize money and global recognition in the place came more and more players and along with more players came some well known Esports companies which previously were operating in India but very few people were aware of them and even fewer, well let's say concerned.
The ecosystem was so holistically developed that it benefitted everyone, PUBG Mobile, the players, youtube content creators, Esports companies, casters and gamers in general. The youtube gave rise to India’s very own gaming stars such as Mortal, Dynamo gaming, Scout, Jonathan, Viper, Regaltos etc. They became new heroes and the public would spend their time, energy and money on their streams. At the peak of PUBG Mobile Mortal aka Naman Mathur set a record of 2 million live watching, and why not Soul remains one of the most loved Indian Teams with a much higher fan following. All the matches of the tournament were streamed live on Youtube garnering over 50k live watchers on an average.
Some of the major tournaments are stated below for reference :
PUBG Mobile Campus Championship
PUBG Mobile Club Open Spring Split
PUBG Mobile Club Open Fall Split
PMCO
PUBG Mobile India Series
PUBG Mobile Star Challenge
PMSC
PUBG Mobile Pro League
PMPL — South Asia
So with this much earning capacity, the players across India started dreaming of making money through one thing which most kids love the most, gaming. This was an opportunity like never before and most importantly India saw common people rising to the highest level, so their dreams and aspirations resonated well.
Everything was going well, and then questions and concerns started rising all over the world, some fueled by personal experiences, some media influence, some conspiracy fueled by competitors. The first dent in the airtight atmosphere came in March 2019 when Govt. of Gujarat banned the game, stating the reason for being too addictive and violent. Now comes the question that there are other shooter or battle royale games then why PUBG Mobile was bearing the burnt, ironically the reason for the rise and fall of PUBG Mobile is the same, the game focuses on being realistic, and it became too realistic for its own good.
Finally, when India China tensions were at their peak, the government dealt the final blow and on September 2, 2020, PUBG Mobile was banned across India along with 118 other apps including Tiktok and Camscanner.The reason stated by the govt. was that PUBG Mobile was stealing and transmitting user data in an unauthorized manner to servers which have location outside India. This was a huge blow to millions of fans and people went to any and every length to keep on playing their most favorite game.
PUBG Mobile banned
At the beginning when the sentiment was high and Tencent was part of PUBG Mobile, people refrained and this can be seen in the Daily active users report by Tencent, from 65 million active daily users in March 2020, it fell to only 30 million in December 2020. During its peak and the first wave of Covid in India, March 2020, PUBG was earning $270 million a month through in-game purchases and sponsors and the company was not ready to leave its biggest market, multiple attempts to launch the game was made which even included severing ties with Tencent Gaming, a Chinese company but it was denied by Govt. each and every time, the gaming community was furious but little could be done mainly because of the reason stated for the ban. After 4 attempts to launch the game as it was and even storing the data in India and non-transmission of data outside could not convince the govt. PUBG Mobile went silent for months and people moved to other Battle Royale games such as Call of Duty: Mobile, Garena Free Fire, etc, but PUBG was not quitting, not anytime soon. During the months they were silent, Battlegrounds Mobile INDIA was in the making. Finally on the 4th of May 2021, 9 months after the ban Krafton gaming made it official that the game is slated to launch soon as Battlegrounds Mobile India, and subsequently all the platforms such as Youtube, Twitter, official web page became active. The mood among the fans and gaming community was as if a festival was granted permission to be celebrated. Youtubers, casters, influencers all became active and started reliving the moments.
Battlegrounds Mobile India
Let's hope it's not much of a wait this time, but we should also keep in mind that Battleground’s Mobile India follows the said guidelines strictly and provides a safe secure, and same realistic experience again.
Welcome back phoenix, rise from the ashes again , hit the sky soon.
Battlegrounds Mobile India
