Garena's Free Fire: Illuminate has today been banned in India along with 53 other apps linked to China, following Indian government orders.

Sensor Tower has estimated that combined, Free Fire: Illuminate and Free Fire Max saw over 238 million downloads in India before the ban.

In fact, India has housed the game’s biggest playerbase with the largest market for new installs in 2021, at nearly 68 million.

Also in 2021, Free Fire ranked third for India’s most downloaded mobile game of that year. It came in behind Gametion’s Ludo King and Miniclip’s Carrom Pool. Whilst in third place for downloads, it is estimated that Free Fire was on top for generating revenue in 2021.

Still flickering

Notably, Free Fire’s enhanced version, Free Fire Max, has been removed from the Indian App Store but is presently still available on the Play Store.

This version achieved 13 million installs in India between its September 2021 launch and the end of last year. Meanwhile, Free Fire: Illuminate reached almost 55 million downloads in India during 2021.

Whilst Free Fire Max had fewer installs last year, having launched towards the end of 2021, it now ranks as the number one game in India in terms of downloads.

This is not the first time the Indian government has removed games linked to China from app stores. In September 2020 the government removed 118 mobile games from marketplaces, including Tencent published PUBG Mobile. A year later Krafton released Battlegrounds India Mobile in the country via Google Play.

Roblox removed its LuoBuLesi app from the Chinese market in December 2021 after reaching 1.7 million downloads.