Why await can't be used from a normal function or the global scope

Question

I was reading a blog that have the below sample code,

async function fAsync() {
    // actual return value is Promise.resolve(5)
    return 5;
}

// can\'t call          


        

Answer 1

A "top level await" is currently at stage 2 (draft) on TC39's ECMAScript standard

https://github.com/tc39/proposal-top-level-await

It has been at stage 2 for 3 years, so, I don't know if it will ever make it to stage 3 (candidate) let alone stage 4 (finished)

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EDIT

Original answer was in November 2018. In June 2019 top level await graduated to stage 3 (candidate). Stage 4 is very likely to follow, but hard to say when.

Side note : If you want to dive deeper, this gist and some of its comments are informative on the subject.