Garena Free Fire beats Fortnite to become most-watched battle royale game in 2021

Garena Free Fire was named the most-watched battle royale title of 2021, beating Fortnite Battle Royale by a massive 60 million views.

The world of mobile gaming and esports is expanding rapidly with each passing day. And the battle royale genre is currently at the forefront of mobile gaming, with huge viewership across all streaming platforms.

Games such as Garena Fire Fire, PUBG Mobile, and COD Mobile have emerged as torchbearers for mobile esports, generating staggering numbers.

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Garena Free Fire beats Fortnite

According to a recent report by popular analytics firm Stream Hatchet, as of October 2021, Garena Free Fire has emerged as the most-watched battle royale title of 2021, with a staggering 1.08 billion in hours watched. The mobile battle royale title has beaten the popular Epic Games developed Fortnite in this race by a margin of 60 million. Fortnite has amassed 1.02 billion in hours watched across all major streaming platforms.

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Garena Free Fire's takeover

During the initial four months of 2021, Fortnite beat Free Fire in terms of watch time. However, things turned around in the month of May where Free Fire viewership skyrocketed and since then for the last 6 months has remained above that of Fortnite.

Free Fire vs Fortnite monthly viewership in 2021 so far (Image via Stream Hatchet)

A major contributing factor to this takeover is the Free Fire World Series: 2021 Singapore, held in May. The event created history as it became the most-watched esports tournament in the world, amassing a peak viewership of 5.4 million concurrent viewers and shattering the previous record of 3.9 million set during the League of Legends: Worlds 2019.

A major chunk of the viewership came from the Hindi stream, where the viewership peaked at a staggering 1.9 million, even when none of the teams from India and other regions in South Asia took part in the championship due to COVID-19 restrictions barring travel from South Asia to Singapore.

However, in terms of hours watched among the 16 languages the World Series was broadcasted in, the Portuguese language emerged victorious. The Portuguese stream accounted for 25.9% out of the total hours watched, followed by the Hindi stream at 22.5%.

Free Fire has been majorly popular, especially in the South American and Indian regions, where Free Fire-related content and esports tournaments bring in staggering numbers.

Two of the most famous Free Fire content creators from India and Brazil, namely Total Gaming and Nobru, have 29.5 million and 13.1 million subscribers, respectively, on their YouTube channels. This puts them in the elite list of the most subscribed gaming channels in the world on YouTube.

Free Fire, in its endeavors, has also picked up many awards. The title was awarded mobile game of the year at the 2020 Esports awards. This year too, the title has been nominated in two categories at the Esports awards. Going forward it would be intriguing to witness which new records this mobile title breaks.