Garena Free Fire banned, but Free Fire Max is still available: Everything to know

The Minry of Home affairs banned 54 Chinese apps on Monday, including the popular battle royale title Garena Free Fire. The game had disappeared from the Google Play and App Store pages a day before. There has been no official statement from the Singapore-based video game developer regarding the India ban.
While Free Fire is no longer available for download, its “superior” counterpart, Free Fire Max is still up on the Google Play store. Apple, however, complied with the order and removed both versions from its App Store. Players who already have the Max version installed can log in to their Fire id and play the game normally.
Free Fire v Free Fire Max
Free Fire is a ‘Lite’ version of the game, designed to run on mobile devices with lower specifications. When downloading from the Google Play Store, it is just 700MB in size and requires only 1GB RAM to function smoothly – which is easily present in most modern phones.

Launched in September 2021, Free Fire Max is hefty in comparison, taking up 1.5GB of storage space and requires a device with at least 4GB of usable RAM. The major difference between the two would be in terms of graphics quality, where the standard version has lightly detailed and pixelated textures that don’t take up too many resources.
Free Fire Max sees major enhancements in visual fidelity, with better colours, foliage, lighting, and shadows that do not put a strain on your CPU.
Weapon animations are heavily detailed as well, and when using sniper rifles, the draw dance is rendered evenly. Meaning, players will be able to see farther enemies with clarity and will not encounter a visual lag when quickly switching to the scope.

The core gameplay remains the same, with both titles receiving similar updates and seasonal events. However, Free Fire Max occasionally doles out exclusive cosmetics and rewards, keeping in theme with specific maps in-game.
Those still looking to play Free Fire can download the Max version while it is still available on the Play Store. Thanks to the Firelink integration, one can easily sign in to their exing Fire id and keep all progress and items from the lite version.