The Free Fire World Series (FFWS) is the annual professional Free Fire world championship tournament hosted by Garena. Teams compete for a total prize pool of .[1] The 2021 edition of the event became world's most watched esports event by peak live viewer count at the time.[2]
The Free Fire World Series uses the Squad Battle Royale mode available in the video game Free Fire. 48 players (12 teams each one having four players) airdrop onto an island without any weapons or armor. Once on the ground, players must search for weapons, armor, and med kits. Players can knock down players using the weapons they collected. The last team to survive wins the game. Players get points based on the number of eliminations and final ranking of their team.[3] [4]
Free Fire World Series 2019 was held in November 2019 at Barra Olympic Park, Rio de Janeiro, and featured a prize pool of $400,000. 12 teams from Brazil, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Middle East, India, Latin America, North America, and Eurasia participated in the championship. It was won by the Brazilian representatives the Corinthians.[5] The event had a peak live viewers count of 1.9 million.[6]
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the FFWS for the 2020 season - alongside the 2020 Free Fire World Cup 2020 (FFWC) that was supposed to be held in Jakarta during the Summer, were both cancelled. Free Fire World Series 2020 had to be replaced with Free Fire Continental Series 2020 which was held to be on April 19. Free Fire Continental Series was held as 3 separate events for Asia, EMEA and Americas. The event was streamed live on YouTube and had 1.5 million peak live viewers. There was a prize pool of $300,000. In each region a total of 18 teams fought for a prize pool of $300,000. The Asian region winner was EXP Esports, the EMEA region winner was Sbornaya Chr, and the American region winner was Team Liquid.[7] [8] [9]
In 2021, Garena announced the Free Fire World Series with a prize pool of $2million.[10] The grand finale was held in May 2021 at Marina Bay Sands, Singapore. A total of 18 teams competes for the FFWS trophy, which was won by Phoenix Force (EVOS Esports TH).[11] The Free Fire World Series 2021 became the most watched esports event at the time with over 5.4million peak live viewers, surpassing the 2021 League of Legends World Championship, which had 4 million peak viewers.[12]
The second FFWS event was cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic scheduled to held in November 2021.[13]
In 2022, two FFWS editions were held.
The first FFWS 2022 grand finale was held in May 2022 at the Resort World Sentosa convention centre. The event featured 18 teams representing different regions, competing for a prize pool of $2million. The championship was won by Attack All Around.[14] The event had a maximum of 1.4million concurrent viewers during the grand finale, which was a decrease of 4million viewers from the 2021 viewership, partially due to the ban of Free Fire in India and Bangladesh.[15]
The second FFWS event of 2022 was held in Bangkok, Thailand.[16] The event featured 17 teams from around the world. Players compete for a prize pool of $2 million. The championship was won by EVOS Phoenix for the second time in this competition.[17]
The 2023 Free Fire World Series grand finale took place in Bangkok, Thailand, hosting a total of 18 teams and a prize pool of $1 million. The participating teams comprised three from Brazil, Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam each, while Argentina, Mexico, Colombia, Pakistan, Morocco, and Malaysia were represented by one team each. Team Magic Squad from Brazil won the championship. The event had a significantly low amount of viewership compared to previous FFWS.[18]
The Free Fire World Series – Global Finals 2024 (FFWS), scheduled to be held in Brazil in November 2024.[19] The qualification path of teams for this tournament are 2024 Esports World Cup – Free Fire, FFWS South East Asia 2024 Fall, FFWS Brazil 2024, FFWS LATAM 2024, FFWS Middle East and Africa 2024.
| Country | Times hosted | Editions | Upcoming Editions | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Singapore | 2 | 2021 (1st), 2022 (1st) | ||
 Thailand | 2 | 2022 (2nd), 2023 | ||
 Brazil | 1 | 2019 | 2024 |
| Year | Host Country | Venue & City | Champion & Runner up | 3rd Place | MVP of the Tournament | Number of Teams | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Champion | Score | Runner-up | |||||||||||
| 1 | 2019 | Brazil | Barra Olympic Park, Rio de Janeiro | Corinthians | 132 | 98 |  Sbornaya ChR | ILLUMINATE Slow TwoK | Nobru (Corinthians) | 12 | [20] | ||
| – | – | (Not held because of COVID-19 pandemic.) & replaced with Free Fire Continental Series 2020. | – | [21] | |||||||||
| 2 | 2021 (1st) | Singapore | Marina Bay Sands, Downtown Core | Phoenix Force | 113 | 77 | LOUD | Silence | The Cruz (Phoenix Force) | 18 | [22] | ||
| – | – | (Not held because of COVID-19 pandemic.) | – | [23] | |||||||||
| 3 | 2022 (1st) | Singapore | Resort World Sentosa, Sentosa | Attack All Around | 92 | 91 | EVOS Phoenix | Vasto Mundo | JLX (Attack All Around) | 18 | [24] | ||
| 4 | 2022 (2nd) | Thailand | Bangkok | EVOS Phoenix | 117 | 114 | Vivo Keyd Stats | Nigma Galaxy | Moshi (EVOS Phoenix) | 17 | [25] | ||
| 5 | 2023 | Thailand | Bangkok | Magic Squad | 112 | 95 | Buriram United Esports | CGGG | DEW (EXP Esports) | 18 | [26] | ||
| 6 | 2024 | Brazil | Rio de Janeiro | TBD | TBD | TBD | TBD | 18 | [27] | ||||
| Team | Titles | Runners-up | Third place | data-sort-type="number" | Top 3 total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EVOS Phoenix | 2 (2021 (1st), 2022 (2nd)) | 1 (2022 (1st)) | 3 | ||
| Corinthians | 1 (2019) | 1 | |||
| Attack All Around | 1 (2022 (1st)) | 1 | |||
| Magic Squad | 1 (2023) | 1 | |||
| Sbornaya ChR | 1 (2019) | 1 | |||
| LOUD | 1 (2021 (1st)) | 1 | |||
| Vivo Keyd Stats | 1 (2022 (2nd)) | 1 | |||
| Buriram United Esports | 1 (2023) | 1 | |||
| ILLUMINATE Slow TwoK | 1 (2019) | 1 | |||
| Silence | 1 (2021 (1st)) | 1 | |||
| Vasto Mundo | 1 (2022 (1st)) | 1 | |||
| Nigma Galaxy | 1 (2022 (2nd)) | 1 | |||
| CGGG | 1 (2023) | 1 |
Teams from only four countries have reached top three.
| Team | Titles | Runners-up | Third place | data-sort-type="number" | Top 3 total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thailand | 3 (2021 (1st), 2022 (1st), 2022 (2nd)) | 2 (2022 (1st), 2023) | 3 (2019, 2022 (2nd), 2023) | 8 | |
| Brazil | 2 (2019, 2023) | 2 (2021 (1st), 2022 (2nd)) | 4 | ||
| 1 (2019) | 1 (2021 (1st)) | 2 | |||
 Portugal | 1 (2022 (1st)) | 1 |