Garena has launched Free Fire India, a localized version of its battle royale game, more than four years after New Delhi banned Free Fire over national security concerns. The standalone game is available on Android and iOS.
The new version includes India-specific content, parental controls, playtime limits and spending caps. Garena, which is owned by Singapore-based Sea, said user data would be hosted on servers in India.
Garena had announced an earlier launch for September 2023, then postponed it. Vaibhav Das Mundhra, the company’s head of operations in India, told TechCrunch that Free Fire MAX would remain available alongside Free Fire India. Players can use the same account in both games, play together and join the same events. Mundhra said Garena had worked with relevant Indian government authorities and incorporated their feedback. He did not explain why the planned 2023 launch was delayed or what had changed to allow the release now.
Free Fire was banned in February 2022 along with 53 other apps over alleged links to China. Its enhanced version, Free Fire MAX, was not included in the ban. In June, Free Fire’s franchise had about 77.4 million monthly active users in India, compared with 20.8 million for Battlegrounds Mobile India, according to Sensor Tower data reviewed by TechCrunch.
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