‘Garena World 2021’ creates new gaming-eSports phenomenon By bringing immersive experience from Southeast Asia’s biggest gaming-eSports event to over 1.2 million participants on ‘Virtual’ world, generating over 3 million engagements
Garena Online (Thailand) Company Limited, the world’s leading online game provider and developer, the leader in creating superior experiences through online games and eSports, gives thanks to gamers and eSports fans for the great response to ‘Garena World 2021: Virtual Unite’, Southeast Asia’s biggest game and eSports festival held in the form of a Virtual Event for the first time. The event has more than 1,250,000 online attendees from both Thailand and overseas, such as countries in Southeast Asia, Taiwan, China, and South Korea. About 51% of attendances in Thailand are from Bangkok and perimeter areas, while 49% are from other provinces across Thailand. This demonstrates the potential of games and eSports to reach a new generation of community across the country; at the same time, reflects the power of “Garena World 2021: Virtual Unite” that brings the games community together.
Mr. Krit Pattanateacha, Senior Director, Head of Garena Online (Thailand) Co., Ltd. revealed that “The success of Garena World 2021 clearly reflects the expansion of the gaming and eSports industry, while emphasizing the potential of highly active games and eSports community on online platforms, not only in Thailand but also in regional and global level. This is in line with reports from Google, Temasek and Bain & Company indicating that the online media industry in Southeast Asia is valued at $ 17 billion in 2020, representing a 22% growth from 2019, led by the content subscription business and online gaming. The industry is expected to grow continually and reach US $ 35 billion in 2025. Online entertainment consumption behavior has increased since the April 2020 COVID-19 epidemic, both in terms of new users and time spent on the content, and the majority of people will continue to do so in the post-COVID-19 period. Evidently, Garena’s user base grows rapidly. In the fourth quarter of 2020, Garena had a total of 610.6 million active users, a 72% increase over the same period of the previous year.
The Garena World 2021 also has over 40.2 million viewership, 666,029 hours of total viewing time, and more than 3 million engagements, reflecting Garena’s leadership in organizing games and eSports expo in Southeast Asia, and exhibits Thailand’s potential as the ‘Hub of eSports.”
‘Crossover’ is a new norm of digital entertainment.
Nowadays, streaming platforms are not only broadcast games and eSports competition. It’s a convergence of many pop culture which are non-gaming & eSports content. The Garena World 2021 also captured the trend, offering a crossover between multiple entertainment content – mini-virtual-concert, talk show, mini-games – to fascinate and capture the attention of today consumers who are interested in diverse entertainment. The audiences are also interested in academic-related content and insightful knowledge about the gaming-eSports careers that Garena, in partnership with renowned universities in Thailand, provides in the Garena World 2021.
Social-conscious gamers
Nearly 12,500 online attendees participated in the Garena Get & Give quiz. These online participations were converted into a donation worth 500,000 THB which will be given to the Little Miracle Project under the Children’s Hospital Foundation to further assist young ICU patients in need.
About Garena
Garena is a leading global online games developer and publisher. Free Fire, its self-developed mobile battle royale title, was the most downloaded mobile game in the world in 2019 and 2020, according to App Annie.
Garena is run by passionate gamers and has a unique understanding of what gamers want. It exclusively licenses and publishes hit titles from global partners – such as Arena of Valor, Call of Duty: Mobile, and League of Legends – in selected markets globally. Garena champions social and entertainment experiences through games, enabling its communities to engage and interact. Garena is also a leading esports organiser and hosts some of the world’s biggest esports events.
Garena is a part of Sea Limited (NYSE:SE), a leading global consumer internet company. In addition to Garena, Sea’s other core businesses include its e-commerce arm, Shopee, and digital financial services arm, SeaMoney. Sea’s mission is to better the lives of consumers and small businesses with technology.
Source: Garena Online (Thailand)