RIYADH — The Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC) published the "Game Mode" report for the second quarter of 2021, ranking Saudi Arabia's telecom service providers based on their video game performance. This quarter's "Game Mode" report reveals that Zain and STC shared first place for quarterly performance in most video games. Zain and STC outperformed Mobily, and Salam (ITC previously) with lower latency in four of the five most popular games in Saudi Arabia: Fortnite, FIFA 21, Apex Legends, and Dota 2. In Fortnite, the popular video game amongst Saudi youth, Zain and STC scored an average response time of 12 milliseconds. This compared favorably with Mobily and Salam at 24 milliseconds. Soccer video game FIFA was also tested by "Game Mode," with Zain and STC also sharing first place among operators with an average response time of 13 milliseconds, followed by Mobily at 23 milliseconds, and Salam at 24 milliseconds. Zain and STC also outperformed other service providers in the average response time for the Apex Legends shooter battle royale game, after recording average response times of 13 milliseconds, followed by 24 and 28 milliseconds for Mobily and Salam respectively. As for the online game DOTA 2, Zain topped the list with 20 milliseconds, and STC closely following at 23 milliseconds, while Salam scored 25 milliseconds, and Mobily came last with 31 milliseconds. Similar to the previous quarter, performance remained relatively low across the spectrum of operators for the popular game League of Legends, with Mobily topping the list of service providers with an average latency of 79 milliseconds, followed by STC with 86 milliseconds, Salam with an average of 89 milliseconds, and finally Zain at 91 milliseconds. The report is part of CITC's framework to promote healthy competition among telecom operators to provide the best experience for gamers, raise the level of transparency in the market, and provide investors and the public with key data and indicators on the sector's performance. The Q2 2021 "Game Mode" report also unveils valuable insights on the overall latency performance of telecom companies within fixed, mobile, and 5G networks. CITC's "Game Mode" initiative includes quarterly reports that compare response times among service providers across some of the most popular video games in the Kingdom. In addition, the initiative includes an award for the internet service provider with the best response time for video gaming, a key indicator of the network's performance.
