STRATEGIES BEHIND THE SUCCESS OF E-SPORTS (GARENA FREEFIRE)

It has been only 3 years since the launch of Garena FreeFire also known as FreeFire battlegrounds or FreeFire and it has become one of the most downloadable mobile game globally in 2019 and received the award of the “Best Popular Game by Google Play store in 2019. Most of the research done earlier around live streaming ESports games lacks the ability to map the strategies that led to the success of these games. This research tries to map the strategies and the success of the live streaming gaming, Garena FreeFire in particular from the blue innovation perspective. The research has two objectives which are: - • To find out the strategies which Garena FreeFire implemented for its success. • To evaluate user perspectives towards Garena FreeFire which ultimately reveals the strategies implemented by Garena. The research follows a qualitative data collection and analysis in the form of interviews from different users who are both students and working professionals. The results of the search shows that the investment in the mobile platforms would lead to sustainable competitive advantage in comparison to PC‟s and other gaming devices. The research also shows how strategies can influence consumer behavior. There were several factors that led to the success of Garena FreeFire and this study aims to evaluate those factors so that it may be implemented by other online-gaming industries and improve their business as a whole.