Free Fire World Series 2022 Bangkok becomes the most unpopular tournament of World Series

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Free Fire World Series 2022 Bangkok, the last of Garena's biannual World Series championship, ended in Thailand on November 26. Esports Charts found out that the tournament has become the most unpopular in the history of World Series. In this article you'll find more details on why the number of viewers has dropped sharply.

Free Fire World Series 2022 Bangkok had 17 regional league winners and runners-up in Europe, Latin America, Brazil, Southeast Asia and Central Asia. Among them were such famous esports brands as EVOS, Keyd Stars, RRQ, Nigma and others. The best teams of these leagues got invited to the main stage of FFWS, and the runners-up started from the Play-In stage. The Free Fire World Series 2022 total prize pool was $1.78 million.

Tournament Results

In the Play-In stage, nine teams played eight rounds, based on the results of which the four strongest teams advanced to the main stage. The main stage had a similar format, but for 12 participants. Teams received a certain number of points for each round, which depended on the place taken and the number of killed opponents.

The team EVOS Phoenix from Thailand became the winner of Free Fire World Series 2022 Bangkok. At the end of eight rounds, it managed to score 117 points and make 54 kills. EVOS Phoenix players were particularly successful in the last round, where they took first place and made 18 kills. In fact, it was this last round that ensured EVOS Phoenix's victory in the tournament, as well as $500К in prize money. The Brazilian team Keyd Stars took second place in the overall standings with 114 points and 52 kills.

EVOS Phoenix players with the Free Fire World Series 2022 Bangkok trophy / Photo: facebook.com/EVOSROVTH

This was EVOS Phoenix's second victory at a World Series tournament. Last year, the team won the Free Fire World Series 2021 Singapore championship, where the record for audience reach among all esports disciplines was set — more than 5.4 million viewers watched the event concurrently.

Viewership Statistics

Free Fire World Series 2022 Bangkok matches lasted nearly 12 hours, and in that time the tournament's broadcasts accumulated 1.99 million Hours Watched. The tournament saw 168.4K Average Viewers and 354.8K Peak Viewers. It is interesting that it was the first three rounds of the final that drew the most viewers. The closer the outcome of the tournament was, the fewer people were on the broadcasts.

Spanish became the most popular language of the broadcast, accounting for nearly 30.9% of the total HW (101K PV). The Top 3 also includes Portuguese (19.9% of HW and 68.4K PV) and Indonesian (17.9% of HW and 75.2K PV). Interestingly, Thai accounted for only 10% of HW, although the tournament was held in Bangkok and the local team won the championship.

As for the distribution by platform, YouTube accounted for more than 93% of the total HW. The rest was shared by TikTok. When it comes to the most popular channels, the Spanish channel Free Fire LATAM had the most viewers (97.8K PV) with 598K HW. The Brazilian channel Free Fire Esports Brasil is in second place with a twofold gap from the former channel by all metrics.

Comparison with Other Tournaments

Comparison of all Free Fire World Series tournaments

Free Fire World Series 2022 Bangkok has become the most unpopular tournament in the series. It drew four times fewer viewers than Free Fire World Series 2022 Sentosa, which was held earlier in May. Comparisons with Free Fire World Series 2021 Singapore are out of the question, as the tournament in Singapore drew 15 times the PV number, and the AV number there was 12 times that of the championship in Thailand. 

What caused such a big difference? First, the tournament's popularity was affected by the sharp decline in viewership from India. During FFWS Singapore, broadcasts in Hindi drew more than 1.95 million Peak Viewers. By FFWS Sentosa, that number dropped to 400K PV, and during FFWS Bangkok, it was only 22.7K PV. The main reason for this drop was the Indian Ministry of Home Affairs ruling — in 2022, it banned Garena Free Fire and 53 other Chinese programs and applications from operating in the country due to security and data privacy issues. 

Second, unlike previous tournaments, FFWS Bangkok matches were not streamed on the Booyah platform, which had already gathered a good audience last year (615K PV at FFWS Singapore). In general, there was a drop in numbers on all platforms, but Booyah was not featured at all.

Other factors could have affected the popularity of Free Fire. For example, less successful advertising campaigns and collaborations than in 2021. The growth of viewers' interest in competitors such as PUBG Mobile, Call of Duty Mobile, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang or Arena of Valor. Southeast Asia has traditionally been considered a region where mobile titles are especially popular. Competition for the audience among them is very high. So far we can say that the discipline of Free Fire is experiencing bad times.