Top 7 creepy NoSleep stories to keep you up at night

Do you like scary stories? Here are the creepiest we’ve found.

Reddit is a hub of information. You can find a job, learn a new recipe, and look at more memes than you ever thought you could stomach. There’s also a ton of creepy stuff there – just be careful what you search for.

One of the spookiest subreddits we’ve come across is the NoSleep page, one that contains realistic horror stories. One the rules is that “stories must be true, even if they’re not,” meaning that users must treat all stories as if they are true while reading and commenting, and no debunking is allowed. There are also trigger warnings next to the titles of each post, in case something is super NSFW. With all that said, turn out the lights, grab a snack, and dive into what we think are some of the creepiest tales that NoSleep has to offer.

1. Uncle Gerry’s Family Fun Zone

Creepy clown mask

After binging on NPR stories and needing to alleviate some boredom, the writer of this tale decides that he’s going to spend some time interviewing friends and family, asking them to recount some of the most interesting bits of their lives. When his best friends, the married couple Will and Caroline, stop by, their story involves a local legend from their small town about Uncle Gerry’s Family Fun Zone, a play area with games and rides for children. According to the story, a child disappeared after going down a slide, and the tale was used to caution children against being naughty. The more questions that Will and Caroline are asked, the more memories resurface, and they start to think that maybe the Fun Zone wasn’t just all rumors.

 2. I’m a Search and Rescue Officer for the US Forest Service

This is a story in many parts, each one more terrifying than the last. A Search and Rescue Officer who has been in the business for a while recounts some of the strange, unexplained, and downright horrifying things that he experienced while working. Missing people, being stalked in the darkness, and babies crying in the middle of the forest are just the tip of the iceberg. The officer was rarely alone, but that didn’t stop crazy things from happening. Beware, some of these get a little gory.

3. Bought a camping backpack from an estate sale

Just as the title says, the writer of this story finds a backpack at a sale and inside they discover a bundle of handwritten pages. In these pages is the story of three friends who are trying to survive in the wilderness and avoid creatures called the Whistlers. Don’t make a sound, for fear of hearing the Whistler’s song begin.

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4. My romantic cabin getaway with my fiancee

Creepy cabin in the woods

This is a long one,  but worth every minute. Told in multiple chapters, the author and his wife Faye go to stay in her family’s cabin in Colorado. After a few days of hiking, sightseeing, and board games, an expected blizzard hits the area and unsettling things begin to start happening. Little noises outside turn into an all-out supernatural war against the couple, exposing some deeply buried secrets along the way. This story is one of NoSleep’s most popular, and there are videos and pictures that truly make it nightmare fuel.

5. There’s something inhuman south of Seattle

Speaking of stories that include video, we’ve got another one for you. The author, overworked and exhausted, takes a solo road trip across the U.S. and stops at a free campground for the night before hitting the road again. She’s awakened in the middle of the night by a sound outside her tent, and spends the next few hours until daybreak playing a cruel game of hide-and-seek against the thing lurking in the dark. The author has a sense of humor about the whole thing, but it doesn’t make the experience any less creepy.

6. Locked in a resort room in the Dominican Republic

The author of this story and his wife head off on vacation in the Dominican Republic. After an unpleasant exchange while checking into the resort, they’re upgraded to a VIP room in another building than the one that they booked. As they’re led to their room, the busboys and everyone else they encounter give them the feeling that maybe they should have just kept their original arrangement.

7. I posted a photo of my Great-Grandfather online

While looking through old family photos, the author finds a photo of their late great-grandfather, who their mother said was a wonderful person who was universally loved. After posting the picture in another subreddit, the photo gained popularity very quickly. While most of the comments were compliments about how good looking the author’s great-grandfather was, one comment stood out. Apparently, this user says that someone who looks exactly like him frequented the coffee shopped that the user works at. After some investigation, an incredible story about the family lineage is unearthed.

Have you ever read any of these stories? What are your favorite NoSleep tales? Let us know!

5 crazy Studio Ghibli theories that will have you second guessing

Discover some hidden meanings behind these incredible films.

When Studio Ghibli was founded, we can only wonder if the creators had any idea that the films would have such an impact on the world. Studio Ghibli’s first film was “Nausicaa Valley of the Wind,” which was actually released the year before the studio was actually founded. With Hayao Miyazaki at the reigns, the studio has gone on to make some of the most successful anime films to come out of Japan, ever. While some are lighthearted and cute, others, like “Graveyard of the Fireflies,” are based on devastating historical events and left us sitting in the dark drowning in our tears. Fans have raked through every minute of these whimsical movies and discovered a lot of creepy details that are too coincidental to just brush off.

1. God of death

Totoro art
This is probably one that you’ve heard before. If you’re a Ghibli fan, you’re definitely familiar with “My Neighbor Totoro,” about a family of two daughters and their father who move out to the countryside to be in an area with cleaner air, closer to where their mother is hospitalized.

As the girls are exploring their new home, they stumble upon the lair where Totoro, a forest sprite is sleeping. Throughout the movie, Totoro, the other forest sprites, and a bus in the form of a cat (yes, there’s actually a cat bus) take the girls on adventures and help them to cope with their mother’s illness.

White Totoro might look like a huge, cuddly teddy bear, fans soon began to claim that it might really be a shinigami, or a god of death due to similarities between the sisters and an old Japanese murder case, called The Sayama Incident.

In May of 1963, a 16-year-old girl was kidnapped while walking home from school. Her younger sister committed suicide shortly after her body was found. In “My Neighbor Totoro,” the older sister’s name is Satsuki, which means ‘May’ in Japanese, and the younger sister’s name is Mei (pronounced ‘May’), a nod to when the murder happened. About halfway through the film, Mei goes missing for a short while and her shoe is found in a pond. Although Mei is found later and the movie ends happily, fans really think that when Satsuki finds Mei’s shoe, she is so overwhelmed with guilt that she goes into Totoro’s lair and kills herself. Once she has passed, she finds Mei and they both go to visit their mother in the hospital, who is able to see their ghostly forms because she’s dying.

This theory picked up speed so quickly that Studio Ghibli issued a statement saying that none of it was true. Even still, creepy, right?

2. Yubaba’s bathhouse was actually a brothel

Yes, you read that right. In “Spirited Away,” a young girl named Chihiro moves with her mother and father to a new home. On their way to the house, they take a wrong turn and end up in front of a mysterious tunnel. After a bit of bickering between her parents, they all venture down the tunnel and discover an abandoned amusement park. Long story short, her parents are turned into pigs and Chihiro ventures further into the magical world on a quest to save them.

Chihiro at the bathhouse
After eating food from this world, Chihiro is able to mask that she’s a human being and finesses her way into a job at the bathhouse. This is where the comparisons come into play: the sign on the front of the bathhouse reads “yu,” which means hot water. Innocent enough, right?

Maybe not – apparently, in the past, women in prostitution conducted their …activities in bathhouses. The older women who were in charge of running the bathhouses were called “Yubaba,” which is also the name of the character who runs the bathhouse in the movie, and Yubaba’s employees were called “yuna,” or water women. Shortly after accepting the job in the bathhouse, Chihiro is told that she needs to change her name to Sen, and a big, black blobby character named No-Face keeps attempting to “buy” Sen with gold….you can see where this is going.

3. The Ponyo and Kiki’s Delivery Service crossover

An eagle-eyed redditor is the source of this next theory. After finding a side-by-side photo, this redditor belives that characters Ponyo and Sosuke remain friends, grow up, get married, and open a bakery in a small seaside town and become the characters Mr. and Mrs. Osono, the owners of the bakery in “Kiki’s Delivery Service.” Although Kiki takes place years before Ponyo was created, you have to admit that the resemblance is uncanny.Ponyo and Kiki's Delivery Service

4. The villagers have Leprosy in Princess Mononoke

Irontown villagers
In “Princess Mononoke,” there’s a place called Irontown where all of the residents are suffering from an incurable disease. Irontown was founded to be a safe area for these residents because after they get sick, they’re not welcome anywhere else. Due to the bandages covering most of the villagers’ bodies and the discrimination against them, fans believed this disease was actually Leprosy. Turns out, this theory was actually confirmed by Hayao Miyazaki himself. He’d visited a hospital and talked with people who were suffering from the disease in order to draw inspiration for what the Irontown villagers were experiencing.

5. All Studio Ghibli films are connected

Whisper of the Heart screenshot
This one’s a doozy. A number of blogs and Studio Ghibli forums have compiled examples that this theory could be true, like the earlier mentioned “Kiki’s Delivery Service” crossover, a book about Totoro showing up on a shelf in “Whisper of the Heart,” and a ton of others. This theory is really fascinating, and to this day, fans are discovering new easter eggs like characters hiding in other movies that kind of makes this impossible to disprove.

The Studio Ghibli universe is wide and every time you watch one of the films, you see something new. What’s your favorite creepy or fascinating Ghibli theory?

PewDiePie shuts down ‘Subscribe to PewDiePie’ meme

One of YouTube’s biggest stars backpedals after his fans go too far.

PewDiePie

PewDiePie, or Felix Kjellberg, has become a household name.  At over 95 million subscribers, he is YouTube’s most well-known content creator. Early on in his YouTube career, PewDiePie was almost strictly a YouTube gamer, focusing on Amnesia: The Dark Descent, Happy Wheels, and Telltale’s The Walking Dead series.

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In the past few years, PewDiePie has strayed from the gaming path a bit, exploring some of the more trendy content being released, like his meme reviews or LWIAYT (Last Week I Asked You), in which he asks his subscribers to submit specific memes to his Reddit page, and laugh challenges.

While some argue that PewDiePie’s humor should be perceived as dark or nonsensical, some of his content has stirred up controversy – like when he used Fiverr, a freelancing website to ask two men in India to hold up a banner that read “Death to all Jews.” He said he just wanted to see if they would really do it, and seemed shocked that they did.

While streaming a game of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, during a particularly rage-filled moment, he yells a racial slur. That, with all of the publicity around the Nazi jokes that his followers insist were made in jest, caused a lot of PewDiePie’s future projects to fall through, including a show with YouTube called “Scare PewDiePie” which had a second season that had already been filmed.

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Most recently, PewDiePie has been in competition with T-Series, another YouTube channel that posts Bollywood videos, on who can get the most subscribers. Named the “Subscribe to PewDiePie movement,” it started by PewDiePie himself making jokes in his videos and asking his fans to spread the word so that his channel could remain on top. Soon, this movement grew and swept the world, with fans and other popular YouTubers doing things like putting up billboards and flying planes with “Subscribe to PewDiePie” signs trailing behind them. Then the movement took a turn when the shooter in the Christchurch mosque attacks referenced the movement on his live stream just before he entered the mosque.

After some silence on the topic, PewDiePie has finally come forward to release a video addressing the horrific incident, and calling for an end to the meme.

In it, PewDiePie thanks his fans for the amazing support, but then said that “when 90 million people are riled up about something, there are bound to be degenerates,” referencing the mosque shooting and saying that he did not respond for a while after the attack out of respect for the families and victims. He concluded with a statement that while the movement was intended to be positive, that he doesn’t want hate to win and that the end of the meme has been long overdue.

What do you think about PewDiePie’s statement?

How to play Matchington Mansion and create your dream home

Build the mansion of your dreams, and make your friends jealous with Matchington Mansion!

Matchington Mansion

If your dream is to have a big fancy mansion fall into your lap, it’s probably not going to happen. The good news is, you can live out this dream with an addicting app called Matchington Mansion.

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In Matchington Mansion, you play as a character who has been gifted a huge mansion and told that it only needs a little love.

Matchington Mansion screengrab 1You have some help from your best friend Tiffany, an interior designer, who is excited to help you decorate and give you tips. Upon visiting the home for the first time, the door completely falls apart after just knocking on it. You then realize that maybe this home needs a lot more work than you thought.

Matchington Mansion screengrab 2Just then, a new character named Rex enters, and you learn that he believes that the mansion should have been left to him. He’s planning to get his hands on it somehow so he can knock it down and build a casino on the land. Once you shake him off, you go inside and discover that the mansion is an absolute mess.

Matchington Mansion screengrab 3Here is where the game begins! Play games of matching different shapes and colors of decorative pillows, books, and other items. Three of a kind is a match, and four of a kind creates a firecracker which explodes and knocks out more pillows.

Matchington Mansion screengrab 4

Match five to create rainbows which clear pillows in whichever color that you choose from the entire board. When you win a round of matching, you earn coins and stars which you spend on decorating and renovating the mansion.

It may seem easy,  but keep in mind that you only have a certain number of moves to clear the board. If you run out, you have to start the level over. The more levels you complete, the more decorating you can do. This advances the story and allows you to unlock more rooms in the mansion to clean up.

You can  visit other players’ mansions, purchase new artwork, unlock mysterious chests with hidden keys, and work toward making the mansion the home of your dreams.

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Email Debt Forgiveness Day helps you respond to forgotten emails

Face the music, release your guilt. April 30 is Email Debt Forgiveness Day.

email

Yet another email from your great aunt Shirley about the daily activities of her four cats has been sitting in your inbox for three weeks and you haven’t figured out how to respond yet. Or, you’ve missed a friend’s birthday party because they sent you an invite and you read it, but totally forgot. We understand, and it’s happened to the best of us.

Luckily for you, April 30 is Email Debt Forgiveness Day and it’s truly a cause for celebration. On the official website for the new holiday, you can find the instructions on how to join the party:

“If there’s an email response you’ve wanted to send but been too anxious to send, you can send it on April 30th, without any apologies or explanations for all the time that has lapsed. It doesn’t matter how long it’s been. Just include a link to this explainer, the one you’re reading right now, so that your recipient knows what’s going on. Together, we can make our inboxes less stressful.”

How does Email Debt Forgiveness Day work?

On April 30th:

  1.  Dig out the email you’ve been avoiding
  2. Write a reply, ignoring the amount of time that has lapsed
  3. Add a link to the official page, you can even use their email template
  4. Send and enjoy your anxiety-free day
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This is the moment we have all been waiting for – the holiday that we can all get behind, no matter our background. By including a template and an explanation of the day, all the stressful work has been done for you. There are even links to your calendar so you can set the event to repeat every year.

Weeks, months, or entire years, there’s no telling how far back our unanswered email graveyard will go. Now, there’s one less thing we have to worry about. Thanks, Email Debt Forgiveness Day!

Tesla to show off new self-driving technology

Will Tesla run the race to the first mass-produced self-driving car?

Tesla

Tesla is a company that most people associate with being able to give us a taste of futuristic automobile technology, and they’re going to be demonstrating the newest in production later this month.

Two years ago, Elon Musk first confirmed that Tesla was creating its own AI chip for self-driving technology. This chip will be included in the new Autopilot Hardware 3.0 upgrade and will enable vehicles to be fully self-driving. It was said that production on this upgrade would begin at the end of this year’s first quarter, and it looks like that’s been confirmed, according to Electrek:

“Tesla is making significant progress in the development of its autonomous driving software and hardware, including our FSD computer, which is currently in production and which will enable full-self driving via future over-the-air software updates.”

Since this software was previously expected to be available for the Autopilot hardware’s 2.0 and 2.5 versions, Elon Musk said on Twitter that if the customers purchased the full self-driving software package, their vehicles will be retrofitted, but only when the software and hardware are fully compatible.

With all the hype around cars that will actually be able to drive themselves, Tesla’s putting their money where their mouth is and is giving everyone a preview of the functions of the software on April 19:

“With a number of very exciting developments coming in the weeks and months ahead, Tesla will host investors on the morning of April 19th at our headquarters in Palo Alto to provide a deep dive into our self-driving technology and roadmap. Investors will be able to take test-drives to experience our Autopilot software first-hand, including features and functionality that are currently under development.”

Although investors will be the only ones able to test drive, the demonstration will be webcast.

Do you think this will actually come to pass, or will we have to wait for a little more tech tweaking? How do you feel about cars that will be able to drive themselves?

Top 6 YouTube Food Vloggers

Love food? Add these YouTubers to your subscription list.

YouTube food vloggers

In the last few years, YouTube has seen a huge influx of food-related content being uploaded.

Food ASMR (autonomous sensory meridian response), has become extremely popular. In these videos, creators focus on sounds like the tapping of the side of a soda can, crinkling fast food burger wrappers, or chewing crunchy foods in order to give viewers a heightened sense of pleasure. Mukbang videos are still going strong; the word Mukbang is Korean for “eating broadcast,” and this trend of recording yourself eating large amounts of food while having a conversation with an audience originated in South Korea.

While those videos are more trendy, a true staple of food content on YouTube is the good old food vloggers. There are many on the platform, and while some travel the world to introduce audiences to rare and unknown cuisines from other countries, others prefer to stay closer to home and encourage people to visit mom and pop restaurants and dive bars from their college days. Check out some of our favorites from both categories.

Best food vloggers on YouTube

1. Strictly Dumpling

Mike Chen is one of the most popular food YouTubers around. At over 2 million subscribers, his Strictly Dumpling channel is chock full of delicious content from all over. Our favorite videos (and some of his most well known) are his 7-11 and convenience store series. In a lot of Asian countries, the convenience stores are known for having near top quality dishes, both packaged and hot. Sushi from a 7-11 may seem crazy, but we’re definitely willing to give it a try.

2. Mark Wiens

Not only does Mark cover Michelin star restaurants,  he also enjoys giving his audience a glimpse of the cuisine that you’ll have if you’re hosted by a family in a small village on the outskirts of countries that aren’t often vlogged. Most of the places Mark goes are in Asia, and along with describing in detail what our tastebuds would be experiencing, he also likes to sneak in some tips for safe travel.

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3. Best Ever Food Review Show

The name says it all. Sonny is an American whose goal is to try and take viewers along for trips to places that aren’t usually in tourist pamphlets. Sonny’s silly humor reels us in and keeps us watching as he tries foods that even the natives won’t touch. His spicy challenges are painful to watch and eating poisonous pufferfish in Japan had us wondering if we’d ever see another upload from him – you have to be licensed to prepare it! We might pass on that one.

4. Shu

Shu is a London based food and travel vlogger and when not taking viewers around to quaint bars, cafes, and restaurants, gives a bit of insight into what it’s like being a freelancer. Her editing style is very relaxed with a quirky aesthetic, so if you’re into making Pinterest boards of pictures of cups of coffee in cute mugs, flaky pastries, and sunny beach vacations (as most of us are) then you should really give her videos a watch.

5. Kara and Nate

Kara and Nate are a couple from Tennessee who, after getting married, decided that they wanted to travel the world. They had only planned for one year, but that grew to four years on the road and a ton of funny, fascinating food and travel videos were created. They’ve tried the food (both delicious and a little suspect) from every place that you can think of, and have a goal of traveling to 100 countries by 2020.

6. Simon and Martina

This duo is one of the first food and travel vloggers on YouTube. After moving to South Korea from Canada to teach, they decided to start filming their food and culture adventures in a country that is the home of K-Pop and Mukbangs and called their business Eat Your Kimchi. After rubbing elbows with a lot of Kpop singers and actors, they decided to relocate to Japan and have been living there and recommending only the most delicious and magical food experiences that Japan has to offer. They go on vacations from time to time so there are a lot of European travel vlogs to watch as well.

Now that you’re good and hungry, try out some of the cuisines that you’ve seen from these YouTubers. What are you waiting for? Buy that plane ticket!

Facebook and Instagram announce ban on white nationalism

See how Facebook and Instagram will redirect searches for white supremacy.

Facebook

Facebook has officially announced that it will no longer tolerate white nationalism and white separatism on the platform. The same policy applies to Instagram.

Facebook released a statement outlining its efforts to ban racialized hate beginning next week. They said that while they have always included bans on the hateful treatment of others based on race, ethnicity, and religion in their policies, in recent months they have decided to explore broader concepts of hate.

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Part of the statement reads:

“…over the past three months, our conversations with members of civil society and academics who are experts in race relations around the world have confirmed that white nationalism and white separatism cannot be meaningfully separated from white supremacy and organized hate groups. Our own review of hate figures and organizations – as defined by our Dangerous Individuals and Organizations policy – further revealed the overlap between white nationalism and white separatism and white supremacy. Going forward, while people will still be able to demonstrate pride in their ethnic heritage, we will not tolerate praise or support for white nationalism and white separatism.”

The statement continued by introducing a new function on Facebook’s website and app. Any time a user searches for a term associated with white supremacy or a hate group, a pop-up will appear and direct the user to Life After Hate, a non-profit organization created by former white extremists aiming to help others who are currently involved in hate groups.

Facebook Life After Hate popup

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What do you think about this move by Facebook? Is this enough to truly combat hate on the platform or damage control after the discrimination accusations? Sound off in the comments!

No, your kid’s phone isn’t wrecking your family time

A new study shows that the phone isn’t decreasing your family time, but there’s a catch…

family on phones

Parents often worry that handing their kids phones or tablets will wreck the family dynamic. But new research suggests that being on a mobile device doesn’t keep you away from your family after all.

A study conducted by Oxford University and the University of Warwick found that having cellphones and other mobile devices didn’t impact the amount of time that families spent together. In fact, from 2000 to 2015 when there was a large increase in mobile devices and higher quality internet connections, time spent with family at home increased by 30 minutes per day. Good news, right? Well, there’s a catch…

Although there was a significant increase in family time, that 30 minutes was classified by researchers as “alone-together” time, meaning family members are together in the home and doing things alone instead of shared activities like having meals or watching their favorite shows together.

Even though families have voiced concern that mobile devices are behind a decrease in shared activities, the study found that this wasn’t the case as researchers reported that the increase of alone-together time did not have an impact on the amount of time that was spent doing those activities, like watching television as a family. This time remained unchanged and sat at around 90 minutes per day.

The Journal of Marriage and Family says that these are the rest of the findings from the study:

  • In 2000, on average, children and parents spent 347 minutes per day in the same location. Of this, 95 minutes was alone-together time and 84 minutes were spent in shared activities such as eating and watching TV
  • In 2015, on average, children and parents spent 379 minutes per day in the same location, an increase of 32 minutes. Of this, 136 minutes was alone-together time and 87 minutes were spent in shared activities such as eating and watching TV
  • In 2015, children and parents used mobile devices for 38 percent of total family time, 47 percent of alone-together time, and 27 percent of shared activity time
  • Older children (14-16) spent less time in shared activities with their parents and more time using devices, which was concentrated during alone-together time.

Researchers say that even though the time spent doing shared activities has not changed, because games, text messaging, and other things done on phones and mobile devices can be distracting during the activities, this could be why parents are feeling like family members are not as present during Sunday night TV time.

Since mobile devices are now an integral part of day to day life, the sharing of Dad’s hilarious reaction to an episode of “Game of Thrones” on Snapchat could actually be complementing family fun time. Take that, parents.

Citing “psychopath” threat, Indian cities ban PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds

Indian lawmakers target the battle royale standout.

PUBG

Some might say that PUBG’s 15 minutes of fame had come and gone a long time ago, but right when it has just started to hit its peak in popularity in India, several cities have banned it.

PUBG, or PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, is a battle royale game in which players compete against each other one on one to be the last man standing. Equip standard weapons like guns and grenades or more unique ones like frying pans (which, incredibly, can deflect bullets if used at the right moment) to get rid of other players. Run around the maps or zoom around in cars, motorcycles, and other vehicles. The maps that you play on are quite large, and while you’re focusing on not getting killed you also have to keep an eye on the circle around the playable area which begins to shrink. Once outside of the circle for too long you begin to take damage, and if you’re not inside the safe zone in time, that can kill you instead of another player.

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Although India’s gaming scene was once underdeveloped, mobile phones have become more affordable, leading to explosive demand for games. Some countries like China have age restrictions for games like PUBG. But the sudden rise of India’s game demand outpaced its laws. Some Indian lawmakers believe games like PUBG cause bullying and violence. While many say the game is a lot of fun, Indian media have said that it’s a breeding ground for psychopaths, and recently, college students were arrested just for playing it.

This hasn’t stopped most players, though. Even if there has been a crackdown on PUBG for PC and console, the mobile edition is harder to stop, thanks to all those phones. This is very important, considering the fact that India’s mobile game market is expected to break $1 billion by next year.

Bluehole Inc., the South Korean company that created PUBG, hopes to work with Indian authorities to find a solution and foster a healthier gaming community.