Mobile games and Ronaldo make 39-year-old a billionaire

Ye, who moved to Singapore from China in the 1990s as a teenager and became a citizen shortly after his return from the US, has served as Sea’s chief operating officer since 2017. — Sea Ltd

Singapore’s newest billionaire is a former government employee who rode mobile sensation Free Fire into the ranks of the ultra-wealthy this week.

The battle royale or fight-to-the-death title distributed by Sea Ltd ranked among the five most downloaded games on the Apple and Google app stores for three straight quarters this year and has amassed US$1bil (RM4.17bil) in adjusted revenue since launching in 2017. That propelled a tripling in Sea’s market value and the fortune of co-founder Gang Ye, a Carnegie Mellon University alum who’s worked for Wilmar International Ltd and Singapore’s Economic Development Board.