On January 15, Garena unveiled the esports roadmap for the upcoming Free Fire season. Signaling a return to the Free Fire World Series model and the introduction of a mid-year global tournament. While the latter event is yet to be named, the publisher mentioned that more details will be disclosed in the coming weeks.
What is known is that it will involve 18 Free Fire teams. Including the top sides from SEA Spring, the first splits of Brazil and LATAM, and representatives from MEA and Pakistan. With two international events and two splits for each region, there will be plenty of action to keep fans and players engaged throughout the year.
Continuing with the FFWS, the Singaporean company also recently announced that local Free Fire leagues will be rebranded to carry the series’ branding. Consequently, 2024 will witness several regional and local tournaments such as FFWS Brazil, FFWS Southeast Asia (SEA), FFWS Latin America (LATAM), and FFWS Middle East (MEA).
The season-closing extravaganza, the Free Fire World Series Global Finals, will take place in November as an offline event. Eighteen teams from various leagues, including the FFWS SEA Fall, FFWS Brazil, and FFWS LATAM, will compete alongside the champion from the inaugural mid-year global Free Fire tournament for a chance to claim the world throne.
Recapping Free Fire’s 2023 run.
The popular battle royale discipline experienced a relatively calm year with a few changes to the esports season’s roadmap. The Free Fire SEA Invitational 2023 replaced the summer split of the Free Fire World Series, resulting in two of the biggest events in the discipline and ending as two of its most successful across the year.
Although these adjustments did not completely recover the viewership numbers from the highs of the Free Fire World Series 2021 in Singapore, they did indicate a plateauing of viewership globally. The game found its footing in an increasingly crowded BR shooter space with competition emerging almost daily.
In terms of viewership data, the FFWS 2023 concluded as the discipline’s most popular competition. Brazil’s significance was evident with two of the five most popular events originating from there, and FFSI 2023 ranked fifth in this table.
The FFWS 2023 also became the third-most viewed out of five tournaments held in the series so far. Adding to Brazil’s impressive viewership figures was the fact that Magic Squad, one of its teams, became the world champion.
A return to the FFWS system might be a welcome change for the discipline as it gears up for another vital season of esports activity. Coupled with its recent return to one of its largest markets in India, including competitive play, Garena hopes to build on the last 12 months and enjoy an even more successful 2024.