Free Fire

About

Free Fire is a free-to-play Battle Royale game developed by Garena for Android and iOS. The game was released in December 2017 and features over 15 different game modes, with the main ones being: Battle Royale up to 50 players and Clash Squad, a team-based mode where two teams of 4 players fight each other in a best-of-5 match. Free Fire has also been consistently more popular in Latin America, India and Southeast Asia, as people shared numerous ironic memes, parodies and other memetic formats.

History

According to the game's Wiki Fandom page,^[1] Garena studio released a beta version of Free Fire on August 23rd, 2017 for Android and iOS. Brazilian YouTuber^[2] @CanaldoFoguinho uploaded one of the earliest gameplay videos of the mobile game (shown below), amassing more than 638,000 views and 64,000 likes in seven years

Free Fire was globally released on December 8th, 2017, featuring two main game modes – and other 13 unique modes, that players can choose from. Battle Royale, in which 50 players are dropped onto an island and must fight to be the last one standing, The second, Clash Squad, is a team-based mode where two teams of 4 players fight each other in a best-of-5 match.

In all the game modes available, it is possible to acquire all characters and cosmetics by using gold, an in-game currency that can be earned through gameplay and event participation, or with Diamonds which can be bought with real-world currency.

On June 13th, 2020, Garena released the first official trailer^[3] for Free Fire (shown below), which amassed over 754,000 views and 48,000 likes in four years.

Online Presence

Much like Fortnite and other popular battle royale games, Free Fire has had a large online presence across multiple social media platforms and websites. The game currently has over 95,000 followers on X^[4] for the North American account, 1.5 million followers on YouTube^[5] and 27 million on Facebook^[6] for the Brazilian account. The game also features local pages and accounts on several social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram and Reddit.

As for unofficial accounts, there are numerous pages from fans, including the Instagram^[7] page @freefiire_memes which frequently posts memes about the game. On TikTok, user @luanffmemes^[8] has been consistently sharing memes and parodies using other players' gameplays. For instance, on September 6th, 2023, the account posted a video montage of memes and gameplays (shown below), which garnered over 158,000 plays and 8,300 likes in six months.

Free Fire also has a large meme culture within all of these various platforms where fans frequently create content surrounding their unique ways of playing the game or their feelings about the matches. For example, on January 23rd, 2021, TikTok^[9] user @aledroiidyt posted a video of 4 Power Rangers characters dancing during gameplay (shown below, left), which garnered over 35 million plays and 5 million likes in three years. On November 26th, 2023, TikTok^[10] user @pamelinhaff posted POV of how it feels when your internet has a problem during a ranked match (shown below, right), which received roughly 1.2 million plays and 104,000 likes in four months.

Related Memes

Free Fire Collaboration Parodies

Free Fire Collaboration Parodies refers to images parodying the Battle Royale mobile game Free Fire collaborating with other businesses or franchises that are unrelated to the game. For example, on February 16th, 2021, Facebook page "Gomen Yui Posting" uploaded a parody saying the Japanese game Princess Connect: Re Dive would collaborate with Free Fire. The post received 343 reactions and 319 shares (shown below, left).

Search Interest

External References