Mobile game 'Plague Inc.' has been removed from China's app store amid the growing coronavirus pandemic
"We've just been informed that Plague Inc. 'includes content that is illegal in China as determined by the Cyberspace Administration of China' and has been removed," developer Ndemic Creations wrote of their popular pandemic title., in which players work to stop a global outbreak of a deadly pandemic, has been removed from China's app store amid the growing COVID-19, or coronavirus, pandemic.
The game, originally launched in 2012, had seen a recent resurgence in the country. Analytics firm Sensor Tower reports that the title has been installed approximately 2.2 million times from China's App Store since its launch, with an estimated 200,000 of those total installs coming since January, when the virus was first gaining national media attention.on China's App Store have gone up 106 percent in 2020 and the game was the No. 3 overall paid app on the store prior to its removal.
Ndemic said it is "not clear to us if this removal is linked to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak that China is facing" but noted that the game's "educational importance has been repeatedly recognised by organisations like the CDC and we are currently working with major global health organisations to determine how we can best support their efforts to contain and control COVID-19.
The studio said it is "working very hard to try and find a way to get the game back in the hands of Chinese players" and has contacted the Cyberspace Administration of China to get the game back up on the App Store. has also experienced a spike in downloads, topping the App Store's top paid apps in the U.S. earlier this month, dethroning, which held the position for several years.
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