Win.gg
News
Afghanistan bans PUBG, joins India, China in gaming regulation Afghanistan bans PUBG, joins India, China in gaming regulation
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is getting banned in yet another country.
The Afghanistan Telecom Regulatory Authority
announced
earlier today that PUBG was banned in the country after an assessment of the battle royale’s content. This includes consulting with psychologists, civil activists, and parents, as well as with PUBG players themselves.
“The decision was taken to block this game on a temporary basis considering social and security perspectives,” ATRA chairman Omar Mansoor Ansari said.
Ansari added that there will be a continued investigation to find a more permanent solution.
The Afghanistan Telecom Regulatory Authority looked at the gaming industry as a whole after discussing PUBG. The board ended up identifying games that they believe have “negative impacts” on younger players. As has been the case with organizations in some other countries that have taken similar actions, the ATRA also took the country’s culture and religious values into consideration when deciding what games are inappropriate.
I
Afghanistan joins growing list of countries that banned PUBG
This isn’t the first country to ban PUBG. Afghanistan joins Nepal, Iraq, Jordan, Pakistan, and India. Jordan said PUBG had “negative effects” on players. Iraq said PUBG was harmful to society as a whole. The country even called PUBG a “potential national security threat.”
In China, PUBG was replaced with a lookalike game called
Game For Peace. The game, produced by Tencent, replaced all of the violence and blood that the country deemed inappropriate in PUBG. Instead of being killed, eliminated enemies politely wave goodbye and drop loot. According to
Reuters, Game for Peace is being packaged as an homage to the Chinese air force and “pays tribute to the blue sky warriors that guard [Chinese] airspace.”
Is PUBG still banned in India?
India banned PUBG Mobile, claiming that the game stole users’ data. It’s still banned to this day. Tencent claims they are coming up with a new version of PUBG suitable for India, but that has yet to arrive. Despite the ban, many Indian gamers still play PUBG, including esports professionals.
Olivia Richman
About Olivia Richman
Olivia has worked in media ever since graduating from college, with her coverage ranging from traditional newspaper reporting to digital coverage of all things gaming, online betting, and nerd culture. She has traveled around the world pursuing that coverage, from the far coasts of the United States to the busy downtown core of Tokyo, Japan. Olivia’s favorite games include Overwatch and Super Smash Smash Bros, and she has been published at Esports Illustrated, Inven Global, EsportsInsider, Upcomer, and elsewhere.
View full profile
Read Also
Twitch
Kai Cenat joins growing multistreaming trend, announces return
Khizar Mundia
Twitch streamer Kai Cenat has announced that he is ending his exclusivity with Twitch and will be multistreaming content following his recent return to livestreaming. Kai Cenat has consistently streamed on Twitch since his streaming debut and has amassed over 20 million followers on the platform. This wasn’t for the lack of options, as the streamer had reportedly been offered a lucrative amount to stream on Kick in 2023. The ...
News
2026 World Cup last-16 odds: markets for Portugal vs Spain and more
Ben Boland
The 2026 World Cup is heating up nicely and the last-16 matches so far have been of an extremely high standard. Pre-tournament favourites France and England both overcame different challenges to reach the last eight, and they will soon be joined by four more teams before the tournament stops for its first day of rest on July 8. Portugal vs Spain starts today at 3 p.m. ET in Arlington, Texas ...
News
X launches Live Studio in bid to rival Twitch and Kick
Khizar Mundia
Social media giant X has been pushing for content streamers to start livestreaming on the platform, and Head of Product Nikita Bier has announced the launch of Live Studio. X isn’t particularly known for its livestreaming capabilities, and the platform is typically used by clippers to make memorable moments go viral. However, X Head of Product Nikita Bier has been encouraging creators to multistream their content on the platform for ...
Kick
Why Mexico returned SteveWillDoIt’s Rolex gifts: The controversy explained
Khizar Mundia
Stephen “SteveWillDoIt” Rocco Deleonardis celebrated a recent win by gifting the Mexican national football team Rolex watches, but the gesture quickly became controversial, leading to the team returning the gifts. Interest in predicting the outcomes of major sporting events surges whenever tournaments are underway. FIFA has even partnered with ADI Predictstreet, marking the World Cup’s official entry into prediction markets. American YouTuber SteveWillDoIt reportedly staked $2 million on Mexico advancing ...
Twitch
iShowSpeed hits Instagram milestone, gets told to ‘go home’ by Argentina fan
Khizar Mundia
Darren “iShowSpeed” Watkins Jr. has hit another milestone after surpassing 50 million followers on Instagram, but the streamer also found himself on the receiving end of taunts during the Argentina vs Cape Verde match at the 2026 FIFA World Cup. iShowSpeed has been consistently livestreaming the World Cup in North America, but he had to host a watch-along for Portugal's Round of 16 match due to travel complications. The YouTuber ...
Slots
Here is how to play Panda Goes Boom, Red Tiger Gaming’s new slot
Ben Boland
The adorable Panda theme has become one of the most popular categories in the video slots industry, so it is easy for developers to fall into the trap of cliched presentation and mechanics. Panda Goes Boom manages to avoid that pitfall and instead announces itself as one of the leading new slot releases of 2026 — it was released on June 15 by Red Tiger Gaming and is already available ...
News
Xbox to follow PlayStation in ending all physical media
Zachary Roberts
Earlier this week, PlayStation announced it will stop producing physical discs for new PlayStation games starting January 2028. Now, Xbox appears poised to do the same. Though it isn't coming in the form of an official blog post like the PlayStation news did, there's plenty of reporting that Microsoft is about to do the same, though perhaps not in the same way. Sony has confirmed that by January 2028, it ...
