image source: Garena Free Fire Indonesia/YouTube
Mobile games are the fastest growing segment within the gaming industry, with an estimated 2.7 billion people playing mobile games this year. This is especially true in emerging markets where console and PC hardware is out of reach for the average consumer. Gamers in these mobile-first countries made Garena Free Fire the most downloaded battle royale of 2019 and YouTube’s fourth most viewed game of 2019. “When you look at emerging markets, like Brazil and India, many people own mobile devices with low specifications -- typically in the $100 - $150 USD price range," says Elizabeth Del Valle, Global Marketing Lead for YouTube Gaming. "Garena developed a game specifically for game enthusiasts who owned such devices."
This year, Free Fire broke its all-time record for daily players with over 80 million daily active players, and views of Free Fire videos have managed to eclipse their already phenomenal 2019 highs, reflecting what Del Valle describes as "a strong community of Free Fire fans and creators, such as TheDonato, LOUD and Nobru, who continue to be invested in the game since its launch back in 2017 -- playing, watching, and creating Free Fire content."
Read on to discover five fast facts about this popular game.
Five Fast Facts
- Viewership of videos related to Free Fire is greatest in mobile-first markets, such as Southeast Asia, India and Brazil. In fact, the United States isn’t even in the top 20 for viewership of this immensely popular game.
Where are people watching Free Fire videos?
2020 global views of videos related to Garena Free Fire from January through October
Source: Global YouTube views, 1/1/2020 - 10/31/2020
- Videos related to Free Fire have been viewed over 100 billion times since 2017.
- Since its release in 2017, Free Fire has consistently increased in viewership on YouTube with its greatest leaps coming in 2020. Among the videos being uploaded are a relatively new format specific to mobile games, handcams, videos in which the gamers show their hands manipulating their mobile devices as they play.
Views of Free Fire videos hit all-time high
Indexed global views of videos related to Garena Free Fire from January 2017 through October 2020
Source: Global YouTube views, 1/2017 - 10/2020
- In fact, YouTube's monthly viewership for videos related to Free Fire hit an all-time high in October 2020.
- One of Free Fire’s biggest tournaments, Free Fire League 2020 Clausura, ran from August 29 through November 7. The finale has been viewed more than 15 million times on YouTube.