Garena Free Fire vs Fortnite: Which is the most watched battle royale game?

Garena Free Fire vs Fortnite: The mobile gaming and esports industry is expanding rapidly and it is the battle royale genre that has emerged as everyone's favourite. PUBG Mobile, Call of Duty Mobile, Fall Guys, Garena Free Fire, Fortnite and other such battle royale games have fought their way to the top of the segment. Not just playing, even watching online gaming on platforms like Twitch and YouTube has become popular. Garena Free Fire emerged as the most popular battle royale game of 2021, beating Fortnite by 60 million views.

Viewership analytics till October 2021 showed Garena Free Fire as the most-watched battle royale game in 2021 with 1.08 billion in hours, a report by analytics company Stream Hatchet. On the other hand, Fortnite recorded 1.02 billion watched hours. In the initial four months of 2021, Fortnite surpassed Free Fire in watch-time. The battle of viewership between Free Fire and Fortnite took an opposite view when viewership of Free Fire soared above Fornite and still remained the same.

The Free Fire World Series: 2021 Singapore, which took place in May, was a major factor in steep viewership of the game. The event made history by being the world's most-watched esports tournament, with a peak viewership of 5.4 million concurrent viewers, breaking the previous record of 3.9 million set at League of Legends: Worlds 2019.

Free Fire viewership demographics

Even though no teams from India or other parts of South South Asia participated in the Free Fire World Series: 2021 Singapore because of COVID-19 traveling limitations from South Asia to Singapore, the major part of viewership came from the Hindi stream which garnered 1.9 million viewers. Free Fire has a large gaming following, especially from South America and India, where Free Fire-related content and esports tournaments attract a number of gamers.

However, the Portuguese language garnered the most number of hours viewed out of the 16 languages in which the World Series was broadcasted. The Portuguese stream accounted for 25.9% of total hours watched, with the Hindi stream coming at second with 22.5%.