Hi, I'm James. This post is part of foundation works for my Free Fire coverage and it's first published on yuinausicaa.com July 2, 2020. Hope you find Free Fire Series & Others interesting. Current coverage is Free Fire with the following roadmap in mind: Free Fire → Garena or Sea's DE → Shopee or Sea's EC → SeaMoney or Sea's DFS → Sea Limited or SE.US). While it might take a secondary b-s analyst two weeks to initiate a name, I probably will spent two months to just initiate Free Fire as I'm solo (no resources so it probably takes longer) and don't need to pitch (no time pressure even if SE.US has 3x and keeps hitting ATH recently). I can be reached via [email protected] :)
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💡 I don't have the luxury to get access to premium analytics so I start with some free information available online. This note follows Free Fire - Preparation 01 to collect Garena Free Fire public data and some initial thoughts.
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Recent Data - All from Senor Tower
First Half 2020 Top Games
- In the first half of 2020, Garena Free Fire took No.1 and No.2 in Google Play Downloads and Overall Downloads, respectively.
- In terms of grossing, Garena Fire Fire took No.10 in Google Play Revenue but didn't enter into top 10 either in App Store or Overall. This is due to lower ARpPU in markets that are dominated / newly penetrated by Garena Free Fire.
- Acquiring large user base is just the beginning. It takes some efforts and time to increase the monetization through on-going operation to keep engagement high (eventually to increase paying user ratio and average spending among paying users...)... Another way to boost the ARpPU is to penetrate high ARpPU gamer segment in existing markets or some markets with higher ARpPU. Increasing or jump in downloads from App Store or Developed Markets might be early sign of improving ARpPU which might lead to elevated grossing going forward.
- According to Senor Tower, Garena Free Fire generated $300M in the first half of 2020.
Source: Global App Revenue Reached $50 Billion in the First Half of 2020
Source: Global App Revenue Reached $50 Billion in the First Half of 2020
Top Mobile Games Worldwide by Monthly Downloads and Revenue
- The Worldwide Downloads of Garena Free Fire has been trending up since March 2020 in both Google Play and Overall Ranking. It was top 3 in both Google Play and Overall Ranking May 2020.
- As discussed above, the leading position in downloads still had some leakage in revenue conversion. It seems Garena Free Fire struggled to maintain its top grossing mobile game position in Google Play in the first five months of 2020. Not surprisingly, it didn't show up in App Store or Overall ranking during this period of time.
- Revenue ranking here is just relative number. It's likely that Garena Free Fire's absolute revenue numbers during this period of time were healthy or even impressive.
- Next: cross check with Sea's Digital Entertainment numbers and update June number from Sensor Tower few days later. July 17, 2020
Source: Top Mobile Games Worldwide by Downloads; Chart: @Anonymous
Source: Top Mobile Games Worldwide by Downloads; Chart: @Anonymous
Source: Top Mobile Games Worldwide by Revenue; Chart: @Anonymous
- Top Mobile Games Worldwide by Downloads