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Free Fire's Naruto Collaboration Wins a Pocket Gamer Mobile Games Award

OFFICIAL Written by GPN · Nov 1, 2026, 8:30 PM ET · Free Fire · Gaming

Free Fire has picked up a major industry honour for one of its biggest crossovers. Garena announced on September 3, 2026, that the game won Best Use of IP or Licence at the Pocket Gamer Mobile Games Awards 2026, for its NARUTO SHIPPUDEN Chapter 2: Ninja War collaboration.

The awards, held during gamescom week in Cologne, Germany, were in their ninth edition, celebrating standout games, companies and talent across the mobile industry. Free Fire's win puts its anime collaboration in that company, recognising not just a themed event but a campaign built to reach players in several different ways.

That campaign went well beyond the game itself. Garena says it extended into offline community activations and esports across Asia and the Americas, bringing players and creators together away from the screen as well as inside matches. Its centrepiece was Ninja Clash All Stars, a two-day tournament in Bangkok that brought together top players and creators from Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Brazil and Mexico.

The scale of the game behind the award is part of the story too. Garena describes Free Fire as a mobile-first battle royale serving more than 100 million daily active users worldwide, which makes a collaboration of this size a genuinely global event rather than a regional promotion.

Looking ahead, Garena framed the win as a milestone on the road to a bigger anniversary, noting that Free Fire approaches its 10th anniversary in 2027 and that there is plenty more to look forward to with its community in the year ahead. For now, the award stands as recognition of a crossover that managed to feel at home both in-game and in the real-world communities around it.

Facts gathered from

• Garena Free Fire

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