The Indian government recently banned 54 apps in the country and one of the most popular game in India -- Garena Free Fire (the Singapore-based company) was amongst the list of the banned apps in the country. All of the 54 apps have been pulled from Google Play Store and Apple Play store in India.

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With the implementation of the new order, Garena Free Fire has become the second most popular battle royale game to get banned in the country after PUBG Mobile, which was banned  in 2020. The gaming company Garena has now responded to the query sent by Zee Business team.

"We are aware that Free Fire is currently unavailable in the Google Play and iOS app stores in India and that the game is currently not operable for some users in the country. We are working to address this situation, and we apologize to our users for any inconvenience," Garena Free Fire told Zee Business.

While the government has banned Free Fire, its improved version, Free Fire Max continues to remain playable in the country. Garena Free Fire Max remains the same game, just with better graphics, enhanced gameplay and more. Additionally, players have the option to migrate all of their current Free Fire data over to Free Fire Max.

With the ban, many gamers would be looking for an alternative to switch to and the best Free Fire alternative in India in 2022 are --  Garena Free Fire Max, Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI), PUBG New State Mobile, Call of Duty: Mobile and Fortnite

To recall, in 2020, the Indian government banned hundreds of Chinese apps including the very popular PUBG Mobile and PUBG Mobile Lite. On June 29 the government had last year banned 59 Chinese apps including TikTok, WeChat and UC Browser and Xiaomi's Mi Community over national security concerns amid the border tussle in Ladakh which led to the death of 20 Indian soldiers in the Galwan Valley clash with Chinese PLA troops.

The majority of the apps banned in the June 29 order were red-flagged by intelligence agencies over concerns that they were collecting user data and possibly also sending them.

Later in September 2021, the Government of India further blocked 118 Chinese mobile apps stating that they are prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of the state and public order.  Other Chinese apps in the banned list were Club Factory, SHAREit, Likee, Mi Video Call (Xiaomi), Weibo, Baidu, BIGO LIVE and more.