Free Fire grows 40% and brings Garena to its best results since 2021

Free Fire grew 40% and led Garena to its best quarter since 2021. See what the numbers in the Sea Limited report mean for the game and for players.

By Ronny Rolim
05/12/2026 16h13 — Updated 1 hour ago

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Anyone who still believes that Free Fire is in decline will need to rethink that opinion. Sea Limited, the company that owns Garena, released the first-quarter results on May 12, 2026 — and the numbers for Free Fire are the best since 2021, the year when the game was at its absolute peak during the pandemic.

Garena's revenue grew 40.6% compared to the same period last year. Bookings — which represent the money spent by players in the quarter — reached US$ 931.4 million, up 20.1%. And the adjusted EBITDA, which measures the actual cash generation of the division, rose 25.2% to US$ 573.6 million.

Even the CEO of Sea Limited, Forrest Li, stated in the earnings conference: Garena had its best quarter since 2021, driven by the continued strength of Free Fire.

See also: what life is like for the billionaire owner of Free Fire.

What happened in 2021 and why this comparison matters

2021 was the highest year in the history of Free Fire. With the world in lockdown, the game broke records for downloads, active users, and revenue that seemed impossible to replicate. After that, with the end of pandemic restrictions, the numbers fell — and the narrative of "Free Fire is ending" started circulating in the community.

The Q1 2026 report dismantles this narrative with concrete data. Free Fire not only recovered but returned to operate at the same level of its historic peak. This is no coincidence — it's the result of a deliberate strategic shift by Garena in the past two years.

The complete numbers for Free Fire in the first quarter of 2026

A detail that often goes unnoticed but is very relevant: the base of active users remained practically stable — 666.5 million compared to 661.8 million a year earlier. In other words, revenue growth did not come from more players but from players spending more. The paying user rate increased from 9.8% to 10.9%, and the average spend per player jumped from US$ 1.17 to US$ 1.40.

This indicates that Free Fire is successfully monetizing its existing user base — a sign that events, partnerships, and the Elite Pass are effective in terms of financial engagement.

What drove this growth

Sea Limited's report points to two main factors for Garena's historic results in the first quarter of 2026:

• Continuous strength of Free Fire — including the partnership with Jujutsu Kaisen, which generated over 700 million views in official content and was ranked as one of the largest in the game's history
• Record results of Arena of Valor — the other major game by Garena also achieved its best historic quarter in the period

The combination of both games operating strongly at the same time explains the jump in the numbers. But Free Fire is the main driver — responsible for most of Garena's active user base of 666.5 million.

What this means for Free Fire players

Financial results may seem distant from the reality of those who just want to play a match — but they have a direct impact on player experience. When Garena grows, it invests more: in events, in partnerships with major IPs, in servers, in new game modes, and in content updates.

The report itself confirms this logic: the CEO stated that 2026 is a year of "deliberate investment to deepen competitive advantages" — which in practical terms means more events at the level of Jujutsu Kaisen, more global partnerships, and more new content coming to the game in the coming months.

Free Fire in Brazil: part of global growth

Brazil does not appear in isolation in Garena's data — the numbers are global. But the country holds significant weight in the Free Fire player base, and the Sea Limited report mentions Brazil in other business segments as a rapidly expanding market.

To track its own performance within this growing ecosystem, it is worth using the Free Fire statistics — you can check KDA, win rate, and seasonal progression directly by ID. And if you want to understand better how the game has evolved since the beginning, Free Fire 2018 shows how much the game has changed to reach today's numbers.

To take advantage of the upcoming events with this level of investment, keep an eye on codiguin FF — Garena often releases exclusive codes during major event launches.

Source: Sea Limited — Q1 2026 Results, released on May 12, 2026. Editorial coverage by Free Fire Mania, official partner portal of Garena (FFCP) since 2018.