RIYADH — The Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC) published its ‘Game Mode’ report for the first 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, a local telecom operator, has the best video game quarterly performance. Zain outperformed Mobily, Saudi Telecom Company (STC), and Integrated Telcom (ITC) with lower latency in four of the five most popular games in Saudi Arabia: Fortnite, FIFA 21, Apex Legends, and Dota 2. The report is part of CITC’s recent 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. In the popular game Fortnite, Zain scored an average response time of 18 milliseconds. This compared favorably with STC at 20 milliseconds, Mobily at 22 milliseconds, and ITC at 24 milliseconds, for a total national average of 33 milliseconds. Soccer video game FIFA was also tested by Game Mode, with Zain ending in first place among operators with an average response time of 13 milliseconds, followed by STC at 20 milliseconds and Mobily at 23 milliseconds. Zain also outperformed other service providers in the average response time for the games Apex Legends shooter battle royale game and Dota 2, after recording average response times of 13 milliseconds and 20 milliseconds respectively. As for online battle arena game League of Legends, similar to the previous quarter, performance remained relatively low across the spectrum of operators, with Mobily and Zain topping the list with an average response time of 81 milliseconds, followed by STC at 86 milliseconds, and Integrated Telecom at 89 milliseconds. The Q1 2021 Game Mode report also unveils valuable insights on the overall latency performance of telecom companies within fixed, mobile, and 5G networks. ITC led the fastest fixed networks average latency category with 10 milliseconds, Mobily led the mobile networks average latency category with 32 milliseconds and Zain led the fastest 5G average network latency category with 23 milliseconds. 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. — SPA