- Friday, May 03, 2024
By: Eastern Eye Staff
Southeast Asian nations offer valuable insights for mobile gaming developers in the Western market. Each market presents unique characteristics, such as greater female engagement, rich history in online gaming, or superior English proficiency compared to other ASEAN markets. With the rapid growth of mobile internet connectivity and a large youth population, Southeast Asia’s mobile gaming industry is projected to expand at a remarkable rate of 17.4% year-on-year.
In 2020, Indonesian players, in particular, demonstrated a significant increase of 26% in the number of monthly online games played compared to the previous year’s average. Recognizing this trend, governments in the region have even included esports as a medal event in the Southeast Asian Games since 2019.
According to a recent survey by Google, one in three smartphone owners in Southeast Asian markets played mobile games at least once in the past week. With over 82% of the urban online population in Southeast Asia being gamers, mobile gaming dominates over PC and console gaming by a wide margin. Southeast Asia’s contribution to the global mobile gaming industry is substantial, accounting for 60% of the gaming market’s overall revenue, valued at $49 billion in 2019.
In the same year, the gaming sector in Southeast Asia generated $4.3 billion in revenue, reflecting year-on-year growth of 13.9%. Mobile gaming accounted for $3 billion of that revenue, significantly surpassing PC gaming, which only represented a third of the mobile gaming market and grew at less than half the rate.
Gaming in Asia is one of the fastest-growing sectors, but it also faces challenges. In particular, some games are not available in some countries at the official level or have some kind of restrictions. Asians are forced to use gaming VPNs to bypass these restrictions. VPN for gaming https://veepn.com/vpn-for-gaming/ is a good practice as it makes the game more secure. If you have a good VPN, VeePN, or a similar service, you can protect yourself from phishing, DDoS attacks, and data interception.
To encourage in-app purchases, paid downloads, and in-app advertising, publishers have resorted to indirect or subsidy-based monetization strategies to make up for direct revenue. With high disposable income and a history of in-game purchasing culture, Thailand and Malaysia can lead as positive examples for the mobile gaming world. Advertising revenue also seems to be a convenient strategy for non-paying gamers.
Thailand is said to be the largest market in terms of gaming revenues in Southeast Asia. Ever since the 2000s South Korean, Malaysians, and Thai people have dominated the traditional online PC game markets and are much more used to paying for online games.
Indonesia is also emerging to be a key mobile gaming market. Nearly 50% of paying gamers come from Indonesia and Thailand. Singapore, which is said to be a mature market for internet products, will reach a saturation point while the other emerging Southeast Asian markets will overtake the growth. The country reports the lowest percentage of paying mobile gamers however they spend more than others per player.
Social gaming is also picking up pace as a segment. With COVID-19-related regulations of social distancing, team games have picked up speed. Mobile messaging apps are also expanding their ability to serve as gateways to a new kind of audience for games and online networking services. While still in the earlier stage of the product life cycle, once the companies hit the critical level of users to capitalize on network effects, the Southeast Asian market has an opportunity for a massive user base for team gaming platforms.
The first world-class esports tournament in 2019 took place in the Philippines, showcasing the game Mobile Legends: Bang Bang. This popular event attracted a massive viewership, peaking at 760,000 viewers. The Chinese publisher of the game also collaborated with Southeast Asian countries to include characters from their unique histories and folklore. Others included Lapu Lapu from the Philippines, Minsitthar from Myanmar, Kadita from Indonesia, and Badang from Malaysia.
The Southeast Asian gaming market is growing rapidly, driven by accessible mobile technology, a young literate middle class with disposable income, and established distribution channels like Google Play and iTunes App Store. Western game publishers have an advantage in this market, with some of the top-grossing games in Southeast Asia originating from the West.
While English proficiency may be low in the region, countries like Singapore, the Philippines, and Malaysia hold potential for Western game publishers to enter with their products. Thailand, with its high gaming population, is also a promising market, although localization might pose challenges. Thai gamers may embrace anglicized games if they provide an immersive gaming experience. Overall, the Southeast Asian gaming market offers great opportunities for Western game publishers to expand their reach.
Online gaming has opened new horizons, connecting players worldwide, and offering diverse genres and platforms. Online gaming has empowered developers to reach a larger audience and create remarkable experiences that were previously inconceivable without the internet. Undoubtedly, the rise of online gaming is making a profound impact on the industry, and the future holds endless possibilities for gamers.
