SEA, Brazil remain vital as Free Fire World Series regional leagues pave way for Esports World Cup 2024
With an eye on the debuting mid-year global tournament, the spring splits of the Free Fire World Series have concluded. As usual, it was Southeast Asia and Brazil that continued to attract the most viewers among regions, with the former league becoming the series' most popular non-global event.
After a decent 2023 that witnessed a few tweaks to the roadmap and saw the game regain its footing in an increasingly fierce competitive battle royale shooter market, Garena decided to shake things up more and return to its roots this year. The revamped season saw the return of the FFWS model and a mid-season extravaganza in the form of the lucrative Esports World Cup 2024 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Of the three main regions that saw competition in this iconic Free Fire event, the most successful one was SEA, whose Spring 2024 edition hit 310.1K Peak Viewers. This was a record figure, ending as the most popular entry in the series barring global tournaments, although that is because regional FFWS leagues were only introduced this year.
Also Read: Road to Esports World Cup 2024 — all teams, tournaments and qualifiers
Having also registered 8M Hours Watched and 91.6K Average Viewers, it became the eighth most-watched competition ever among non-global events. This Free Fire event is also now the number one entry by watch time in the FFWS when not considering global tournaments.
The first split of the Brazilian league, too, kept up its reputation, posting numbers that vindicated the country's standing as a separate region in the Free Fire competitive ecosystem. After all, it remains perhaps the most followed region when it comes to fan following, which has seen many of the game's most popular regional events come from here.
The Free Fire World Series - Brazil 2024 Split 1 recorded 82.9K Peak Viewers, 3.3M Hours Watched, and 42.2K Average Viewers over 79 hours of airtime. That puts it in third by peak concurrent spectators and second (behind only the abovementioned SEA entry) by watch time among non-global FFWS tournaments.
It must be noted that the Free Fire World Series - Brazil 2024 has been divided into two splits. The first one is discussed above, with the top three teams from Phase One of the Group Stage (April 20 to June 10) qualifying for Esports World Cup 2024, which will be held from July 10 to July 14.
The remainder of this competition will run as Split 2, with Phase 2 of the Group Stage resuming on July 27. The top side based on rankings here will advance to the Free Fire World Series - Global Finals 2024, while the top 12 teams will seal their spots in the Grand Finals. The top two at the end of this last round will join the pool stage topper in the season-ending finale.
Last comes the Free Fire World Series - Latin America 2024 Split 1, which did not post any significant numbers, although that is in line with its regular contributions. It did see an all-Mexico podium, which is good for the EWC 2024 as Spanish-speaking audiences are usually very passionate and show their support in droves, which translates to higher viewership figures for any tournament.
Compared to similar regional tournaments from 2023 as well, these leagues saw increases in their viewership numbers. However, with a shorter and more compact version of the competition in the Latin America region, the audience reach was much lesser, although there is still time for fans to get used to the changes and show more support come the second split or other related events.
It's an important year for Free Fire, with its entry into the Esports World Cup pool enhancing its reputation as one of the eminent competitive mobile games in the industry. With PUBG Mobile also part of this cross-event extravaganza, there will be pressure for the game to deliver, and Garena will hope its fans, especially from South Asia and Brazil, make it a memorable debut for the game in Saudi Arabia.
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