PUBG has taken India by storm and while the kids are going crazy about the game, government has taken a very tough stand against PUBG game.
Almost to an extent where there are questions being raised on freedom of speech action.
Take a look at this collection on India’s PUBG obsession and reactions from the (state) government body.
1. PUBG eating it's users for lunch? : Earned (much more than) Rs.19 Crores everyday in 2018
SuperData which is a Nielsen company has reported that PUBG earned $1 Billion in 2018.
It has been ranked as "Highest Earning Premium Game in 2018" by the agency.
It's earnings were up 17% over 2017.
The most important thing to note here is that SuperData’s figures covered only the PC, PS4, and Xbox One versions of PUBG, and not PUBG Mobile.
It has been a blazing craze in India and China, where most of it's players are mobile users.
The game has raced ahead of even of FIFA 18, Grand Theft Auto V, and Red Dead Redemption 2.
Abhishek Rai2. Child Rights Commission seeks answers on 'action' on PUBG from It ministry
National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has sought a report on the action taken against the game from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.
The NCPCR took up the issue after a Hyderabad-based Class 9 student had to be given medication by a psychiatrist for PUBG addiction.
While kids are addicted to the game, Parents are still clueless to the extent of damage the game is doing on their ward's psychology.
“Extended exposure to the game dehumanises and desensitises a person to criminality over time, the gruesome way of killing is being made to appear as normal."
3. PUBG aiming towards sanity, locking out players after long duration of play and serving 'health reminder'
PUBG has been much maligned for causing significant emotional trouble in the minds of it's players.
Most of it's players are already addictive to game, due to the intrinsic strategies built in the game.
Things have come to such pass, that several deaths have been reported in India attributing to PUBG and many cities have banned the game.
Now, PUBG has started locking out the players after long duration of 2 hours continuous play and serving them a 'health reminder'.
4. No stopping the PUBG obsession in India, team wins Rs.30 Lac as top prize in 'on the ground' tournament
PUBG is a perfect example of how a mobile game needs to be as much 'offline' as it is 'online' to become an overnight sensation. It has re-written the paradigms of the game.
In the recently concluded PUBG Mobile tournament at Hyderabad, there were over 570,000 online registrations from across the country. The tournament dished out a whopping 40,000 games across to the qualifiers. The top team took home the grand prize of Rs 30,00,000.
While the fans packed the championship venue, the live streaming at a point of time had 2.6 Lac concurrent viewers.
It is not unwise to conclude that without these 'on the ground' championships, PUBG would not have been the sensation, that we talk about today.
Well played team PUBG !
5. 72% of Indian players are making purchase on PUBG
PUBG is the top grossing gaming app on Google Play Store and Apple iPhones game chart as well.
Players are mostly buying clothes and weapons on PUBG, when live streaming is the name of the game, among gamers.
The share of clothing and weapons in purchases made is almost equal.
The inbuilt communication option in the app, through which 40% of players in India talk to each other has not only helped built a unique community but also spread the craze of the cult.
The gamers do not talk only about games, but everything under the sun and mostly use voice chat.
6. "Professional PUBG player and Live streamer" is the new career option for youth of India
India's online gaming market, buoyed by mobile gaming is expected to be a billion dollar industry by 2020.
In just 6 months, PUBG has managed to double it's DAU (Daily Active Users) to 10 million from 5 million in India.
Some real earning potential has hugely been responsible for making it a sensation among youngsters.
Gamers accept donations through payment applications like Paytm and Google Pay. Some also accept money in the form of YouTube Gaming subscriptions which costs Rs 159/month per subscriber.
“I am from a middle-class family and I do not have my dad. My dad passed away when I was four. Any income from this field was very helpful for my family. At an average, I earned around Rs 1 lakh for the first few months. It has actually helped me a lot,”
7. The top 3 factors which made PUBG a household sensation in India
PUBG became a household sensation with carefully and thoughtful inbuilt strategies. It was meant to be, all by design.
The important ones are:
- PUBG could be played even on budget smartphones since the day of it's launch, making it's adoption very easy for it's players and hence ensured its wildfire growth.
- The game came without any tutorial, which required gamers to learn the game and excel in it, the only way, the hard way. This means playing for longer and longer duration, leading to it's addiction.
- The regular updates to the games, kept players more and more engaged and active. There was never a lean period for them.
8. Central Government is the only 'right' authority to ban PUBG
A few cities have started banning the mobile game PUBG because the administrators believe that it is detrimental to children.
However, they have yet to figure out a way to effect the ban in the first place.
Civic administrations neither have the authority nor resources to effect such ban, so issuing mere notifications is just a notional attempt at solving the issue.
The only way mobile games can be banned is by impressing upon the need of it and then effecting a Central Government directive to all telecom service providers to ban the traffic from the game's servers to and fro from India.
9. PUBG addiction makes thief of a 15 year old boy
PUBG has become both the rage and talk of India, majorly among youngsters but the game is so addictive that even adults are finding it difficult to resist.
In such times, youngsters are getting gullible due to game's addiction and committing felonies.
A 15 year old boy from Jalandhar city of Punjab, stole Rs.50,000 from his father's bank account to buy a gaming pod and PUBG skins. Things came to light when Cyber Cell of Police started investigating the matter on the complaint filed by the father.
Father works as a bike mechanic.
Ashiish K Sinha
