Is Free Fire Dead? Losing Popularity? Honest Talk

The Rise and Fall of Free Fire

Free Fire, the game that reaches millions of players within a few months, also loses millions of players within a few months. Today, I will share my thoughts, experiences, and why Free Fire is falling down day by day.

Most games grow rapidly when they become part of a trend. Free Fire is a battle royale game. On the other hand, PUBG Mobile is also a BR game but with a larger size. They were the biggest competitors of each other. In the PUBG vs. Free Fire controversy, both games gained popularity, but Free Fire gained a larger player base because of its 10-minute gameplay experience and smaller size. Even 1 GB phones could run the game in those days.

Note: The article is subjective and solely reflects the author’s opinion.

Before continuing, I want to share a graph of Free Fire viewership ratio around the world.

From the graph, one thing is clear: the game is most popular in India, followed by Brazil and Indonesia. Free Fire started gaining its popularity from 2019, but everything changed in 2020. The years 2020–2021 were when the game grew rapidly. While the lockdown obviously contributed to the growth, the main reason is the increasing hype. Indian YouTubers also played a role in this massive growth.

Starting from September 2020, the growth increases by 5x. Then, from July 2021, the growth becomes sustained. Guess what happened there! As I mentioned, the biggest competitor of Free Fire is PUBG Mobile. PUBG was banned in 2020, which boosted more growth for Free Fire.

Everything was bright and active. One day, Free Fire was banned in India. Even though it was banned, fans still accessed the game via third-party methods and sources. Also, Free Fire MAX became the only way for many players to access their Free Fire accounts.

Till then, Free Fire has fully become a pay-to-win game. If you don’t invest real money to purchase diamonds, you will not be able to spin on Luck Royale and participate in expensive luck-based events. Additionally, better gun skins mean double damage, increased fire rate, extended range, etc.

Trust and Excitement are key factors

There is more value and respect for a player who invested too much money in making the in-game account royale. Rare items, such as bundles or gun skins that only a few players own, hold significant value. Some rare items include Season 1–2 bundles, Red and Green Criminal Bundle, Titan Scar, Unicorn AK, etc. However, starting from 2021, Garena started releasing events including those rare items. Then what happened? Interest from old players in the game decreased day by day.

BGMI also enters the Indian battle royale world. So, now Free Fire has a new competitor.

As already mentioned, FF was banned in February 2022. From that day, new players stopped joining, and old players continued to leave the game. In this way, viewership on YouTube channels and blogs, especially in India, decreased by a massive amount.

Trust and transparency are important. Some people joined Free Fire and dreamed of joining esports, while others aimed to create content, etc. If there is no viewership or fan base, then who will consume that content?

After 1.5 years, the publisher announced some news that increased the hype for a few weeks. They announced that Free Fire India would release on September 5, 2023. But nothing happened. Months went by, and it’s now 2024.

Conclusion

Should you play Free Fire? Yes, definitely, you should play Free Fire in your free time. You can enjoy it. But as a career opportunity and a dream to become a YouTuber like Total Gaming and Desi Gamer, it will be very hard just playing Free Fire.

You should try different battle royale games instead of depending on one. Free Fire is not a totally dead game, but its popularity is decreasing day by day. We can expect the title to gain popularity again when Free Fire India releases.