What happened to Garena Free Fire India launch?

With the return of BGMI back in 2023, Garena also announced a comeback for Free Fire India which gave fans a sigh of relief. The game was supposed to return in September 2023 but saw a delay by the company due to compliance issues. The delay was supposed to be for a few weeks, but after a whole year, fans are still waiting.

Garena Free Fire, alongside a few other games like PUBG Mobile, were banned by the Indian Government under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000. The general belief is that the servers for these games were located in China. While Garena is based in Singapore, the parent company is Tencent.

Fast-forward to 2023, Garena announced a revamp aimed at an Indian audience similar to BGMI by Krafton. However, it was once again blocked by the government as the servers were still not in India. As a result, the last update from Garena was that the company is localizing the game.

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In order to do that, they partnered with Yotta Data Services in order to set up India servers. This isn’t new, as BGMI was also forced to do so as after its initial release it was again banned for almost a year. Hopefully, Garena will see the potential and how much progress BGMI made after hosting Indian servers.

Will Free Fire India ever release?

Free Fire was one of the most popular battle royale games in India, and going by the recent trends it still is. Despite the ban, the entire player base shifted to Free Fire Max, an alternative that provides fast-paced gameplay. It still remains a popular game among the Indian audience, with popular streamers pulling in thousands of viewers.

The most recent esports event, Free Fire Esports World Cup, saw an exclusive Hindi broadcast despite the original game not being available in India. Judging by all this, it is safe to say that the game will return, however, there is currently no update regarding when.