Free Fire: How Much Has The Game Changed And Evolved In 3 Years? The Growth And Successes Of Garena's Battle Royale

Free Fire celebrated its 3rd anniversary a couple of months ago. The Battle Royale mobile title by Garena, which was initially launched in 2017, has managed to cross some major milestones and become a worldwide phenomenon during that time.

Available for download on Android, iOS, and the PC through the use emulators, Free Fire recently reached the mark of 100 million daily users. In addition, the game already has more than half a billion downloads worldwide. So what else has the game achieved and developed since the day it came out?

Compared to other games, this Battle Royale game is known to be lighter, have simpler graphics, and have a slightly smaller scale than its competitors, with only 50 players in a single match, while PUBG Mobile and Call of Duty Mobile have 100 players. Yet the game has managed to compete very well in such an environment.

What could be seen as a disadvantage has made combat faster and more accessible, and seems to have contributed to the game's success. In this year alone, the game went from 60 million active users per day to increasing that number by millions more in the following quarters to an average of 20 million new active players per quarter.

And how much has the game evolved and developed in the meantime? Let's look at the game's other aspects:

Characters in Free Fire

When Free Fire was released, only generic male and female characters were available for players, which could be slightly customized with some clothes. Starting in early 2018, the game started adding a cast of characters that included those like Andrew, Kelly, Olivia, and Ford.

Since then, many more other Survivors have been added to the game over time, including the initial generics called Adam and Eve. Currently, as of August 2020, the game features a total of 31 selectable characters.

What makes the game stand out compared to others is how some real-life characters have been brought into Free Fire. For example, we have the Brazilian DJ Alok, a well-known DJ who went straight from real life to becoming one of the characters.

Then there are those who are basically renamed real-life characters like the recent character Jai, whose likeness came from famous Bollywood star Hrithik Roshan; or Jota, who represented the real-life Indonesian actor Joe Taslim. Then there are several other characters who are inspired by both real-life people and other fictional characters: Maxim, Kelly, Klaa, etc.

The Game Modes

The main game mode of Free Fire is the Ranked Battle Royale, but from time to time, the developers would introduce some new and different temporary modes to the players. These exciting modes would often last over a certain period of time before disappearing, and some of them do occasionally return to the game.

Some of the temporary modes that a lot of fans want to come back today include: Death Race Mode, in which everyone was given vehicles equipped with weapons to fight; Zombie Mode, with undead to celebrate Halloween; and Night Hunter Mode, an evening hunt with players being equipped with night vision goggles.

Sometimes, there are exceptions. Clash Squad Mode was made available temporarily in 2019 but later returned permanently to the servers. Clash Squad puts players in face-to-face combat divided into two squads, each composed of four members. The feeling of this mode is similar to games like CS:GO and it has already received its own ranked mode and even tournaments .

What About the Maps?

Since Free Fire was first launched, the game has mostly focused on the Bermuda map, an isolated island where Survivors can face off without external interference. However, after three years, the Bermuda map has undergone significant changes over time.

In the beginning, the map in its original form was only a fraction in size and content of the current one, with few places to face enemies. With each new update, new areas are added and the map has extended in multiple directions, until now where Bermuda has become a large battlefield similar to that of other Battle Royales.

The game also has two other maps that were added later. In May 2018, the game received a second map called Purgatory, which had more mountainous terrain and required different strategies from the players. The third map, called Kalahari, was added in January 2020 which has a desert climate, and a terrain that is still being worked on for better balance.

And Of Course, Esports

Shortly after its release, Free Fire already began to gain traction in the competitive scene in 2018. On the Twitch website for that year, hundreds of thousand hours of the game were broadcast, a number that approached some of the most popular games of the time, such as Arena of Valor and Clash Royale.

The popularity of Free Fire soon led to competitions and tournaments being hosted in countries where the game is most popular. The following year in 2019, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil was the place that hosted the Free Fire World Series, an international championship of 12 teams competing over a prize pool of $400 thousand USD.

In 2020, the World Series is replaced by the "Free Fire Continental Series" event due to the pandemic of the new coronavirus disease (Covid-19). The competition will be divided into three regional tournaments and will award a prize of $300 thousand USD, and is expected to take place late November this year.

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