Garena Free City expands testing as the Free Fire publisher takes aim at open-world crime games

Garena Free City is quietly expanding beyond its original Android test in Argentina, with downloads now appearing in the Philippines and additional smaller markets. The project comes from the publisher behind Free Fire and moves into territory closer to Grand Theft Auto, combining urban exploration, vehicles and criminal activity in a large mobile environment.

That makes Free City strategically interesting because Garena already understands how to operate massive mobile communities, but an open-world action game requires a different technical and content pipeline from a battle royale. Players expect traffic, pedestrians, missions, interiors and vehicle handling to work together without overwhelming midrange phones. The wider testing footprint suggests Garena is now collecting data from a more diverse range of devices and network conditions.

It also arrives as Gangstar Mirage City and several other mobile projects compete for the same open-world audience. Garena does not need to prove it can attract mobile users; Free Fire already established that. It needs to demonstrate that its live-service expertise can support a persistent city rather than a match-based arena.