The removal of Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) comes a year after India's ban of PUBG, a similar title from South Korean developer Krafton. PUBG was banned for its affiliation with Chinese publisher Tencent Games.

The reason for BGMI's ban was not immediately clear. The country's IT ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

BGMI was unavailable on Apple too as of Thursday evening. A spokesperson for the iPhone maker did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

(Reporting by Munsif Vengattil; Additional reporting by Nupur Anand; Editing by David Evans)