MAM
Free Fire – the World’s Most Downloaded Mobile Battle Royale Game – Suited for Gamers in India
MUMBAI: Free Fire, the world’s most popular mobile battle royale game, was designed to deliver the premium battle royale experience to players all across India. Garena’s first self-developed game set out to address a need with players who wanted a highly immersive and enjoyable social battle royale game, designed specifically for mobile phones.
Free Fire allows users to enjoy the premium mobile battle royale experience on almost any smartphone, and its quicker gameplay with smaller maps offers an engaging and immersive experience every round. The social and interactive elements of Free Fire, including its unique guild system and story arcs for main characters in the game, ensure players are always enjoying the game with those around you.
Free Fire’s deliberate design and social gameplay has grown rapidly to become a favourite all over the world. As of May 2019, Free Fire has more than 450 million registered users, and over 50 million peak daily active users. Free Fire was the third most downloaded mobile game and the most downloaded battle royale game globally across the Google Play and iOS App Stores combined in the second quarter of 2019, according to App Annie. It also continued to be the top ranking game by monthly active users in Latin America in the second quarter, according to App Annie.
Free Fire has one of the largest and most engaged global games community. Garena World 2019, which hosted the first-ever Free Fire World Cup, saw close to 270,000 attendees over the 2-day event. Free Fire World Cup attracted more than 27 million online views in total and recorded peak concurrent viewers of over 1.1 million on YouTube. Additionally, the recently concluded Free Fire Pro League Brazil 2019 saw close to 13 million views on YouTube alone.
Free Fire World Cup 2019, held in Bangkok, Thailand, in April 2019
Team New X was crowned champions for the Free Fire Pro League Brazil 2019
Digital
Content India 2026 opens with a copro pitch, a spice evangelist and a £10,000 prize for Indian storytelling
Dish TV and C21Media’s three-day summit puts seven ambitious projects before an international jury, and two walk away with serious development money
MUMBAI: India’s content industry gathered in Mumbai this March for Content India 2026, a three-day summit organised by Dish TV in partnership with C21Media, and it wasted no time making a statement. The event opened with a Copro Pitch that put seven scripted and unscripted television concepts before an international panel of judges, and by the end of it, two projects had walked away with £10,000 each in marketing prize money from C21Media to support development and international promotion.
The jury, comprising Frank Spotnitz, Fiona Campbell, Rashmi Bajpai, Bal Samra and Rachel Glaister, evaluated a shortlist that ranged from a dark Mumbai comedy-drama about mental health (Dirty Minds, created by Sundar Aaron) to a Delhi coming-of-age mystery (Djinn Patrol, by Neha Sharma and Kilian Irwin), a techno-thriller about a teenage gaming prodigy (Kanpur X Satori, by Suchita Bhatia), an investigative crime drama blending mythology and modern thriller (The Age of Kali, by Shivani Bhatija), a documentary on India’s spice heritage (The Masala Quest, hosted by Sarina Kamini), a documentary on competitive gaming (Respawn: India’s Esports Revolution, by George Mangala Thomas and Sangram Mawari), and a reality-horror competition merging gaming and immersive fear (Scary Goose, by Samar Iqbal).
The session was hosted by Mayank Shekhar.
The two winners were Djinn Patrol, backed by Miura Kite, formerly of Participant Media and known for Chinatown and Keep Sweet: Pray & Obey, with Jaya Entertainment, producers of Real Kashmir Football Club, also attached; and The Masala Quest, created and hosted by Sarina Kamini, an Indian-Australian cook, author and self-described “spice evangelist.”
The summit also unveiled the Content India Trends Report, whose findings made for bracing reading. Daoud Jackson, senior analyst at OMDIA, set the tone: “By 2030, online video in India will nearly double the revenue of traditional TV, becoming the main driver of growth.” He noted that in 2025, India produced a quarter of all YouTube videos globally, overtaking the United States, while Indians collectively spend 117 years daily on YouTube and 72 years on Instagram. Traditional subscription TV is declining as free TV and connected TV gain ground, forcing broadcasters to innovate. “AI-generated content is just 2 per cent of engagement,” Jackson added, “highlighting the dominance of high-quality human content. The key for Indian media companies is scaling while monetising effectively from day one.”
Hannah Walsh, principal analyst at Ampere Analysis, added hard numbers to the picture. India produced over 24,000 titles in January 2026 alone, with 19,000 available internationally. The country now accounts for 12 per cent of Asia-Pacific content spend, up from 8 per cent in 2021, outpacing both Japan and China. Key exporters include JioStar, Zee Entertainment, Sony India, Amazon and Netflix, delivering over 7,500 Indian-produced titles abroad each year. The top importing markets are Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, the United States and the Philippines. Scripted content dominates globally at 88 per cent, with crime dramas and children’s and family titles performing particularly strongly.
Manoj Dobhal, chief executive and executive director of Dish TV India, framed the summit’s ambition squarely. “Stories don’t need translation. They need a platform, discovery, and reach, local or global,” he said. “India produces more movies than any country, our streaming platforms compete globally, and our tech and creators win international awards. Yet fragmentation slows growth. Producers, platforms, and tech move in different lanes. We need shared spaces, collaboration, and an ecosystem where ideas, technology, and people meet. That is why we built Content India.”
The data, the pitches and the prize money all pointed to the same conclusion: India is not waiting for the world to discover its stories. It is building the infrastructure to sell them.
