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The website TechJury calls our time a “Golden Age of Gaming.” The number of people worldwide enjoying mobile gaming in 2024 is more than 1.7 billion, according to the data compilation website Statista. By 2027, experts predict that number will increase to 1.85 billion and counting. This segment of the digital entertainment industry is particularly popular in the United States and Japan, the world’s top two markets for mobile gaming revenue as of 2022.
Other countries in the top five in terms of mobile gaming players in 2021 were China, South Korea, and Canada, according to the online source GlobalData.
A regional mobile gaming boom
But Southeast Asia may serve as the best example of the broadening popularity of mobile gaming generally, and of e-sports gaming in particular. As a region, it has seen one of the biggest, fastest-growing, and pervasive uptakes of mobile gaming.
A Google survey published in 2023 showed that about one out of every three people with smartphones in the region engaged in some type of mobile gaming at least once a week. And projected revenue figures for the Southeast Asian mobile gaming market in 2024 stand at more than $3.1 billion USD.
This growth is fueled by the ongoing proliferation of smartphones and access to the 5G mobile telecommunications network, as well as by national governments’ expanding investment into broadband and 5G Internet infrastructure. Additionally, mobile gaming offers free-to-play options not afforded by personal computer access points.
In fact, experts anticipate a compound annual growth rate of 8.5 percent for mobile gaming in Southeast Asia over the 2023-2028 period. The Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Indonesia are its main national markets in the region, with Indonesia being the largest producer and consumer of mobile gaming products among them. Not surprisingly, these are the Southeast Asian countries that rank highest in terms of GDP.
Cross-generational popularity
This region’s mobile gaming market also offers an interesting study in user demographics: As of 2023, fewer than 10 percent of the region’s mobile gamers were teens, with an estimated 55 percent of them being adults over 55. This is in large part due to accessibility, with the best-known mobile games working well for casual players and those with less time or interest in learning complex rules and protocols. Advertising funds the biggest share of these typically free, hyper-casual mobile games.
Meanwhile, many younger adults in Southeast Asia, formerly relegated by economics to playing less-complex games on very basic phones, are gravitating with the rise in their own earning power to mid-tier devices where they can enjoy more intense gaming experiences.
Broader forces affecting market demand
As other industrial sectors in the region are seeing a drop in consumer demand, the mobile gaming juggernaut in these societies thunders on, supported by group chats for players, in-app ads, and partnerships among major and emerging companies.
These aspects of gaming reached a crescendo during the pandemic lockdowns, when they provided much-needed social connection and emotional release. Even though the pandemic wave seems to have crested, mobile gamers continue to look for a bit of personal respite from volatile economic news and the swirls of often-violent and confusing conflict politics.
The cloud is key
In Southeast Asia and throughout the world, the advent of cloud-based gaming is helping to grow the user base significantly. Affordability and ease of use are key here, in this region where the default communications device is a smartphone: Players who use cloud-based gaming systems no longer need to own a PC or struggle with the hardware upgrades required to play in a PC-environment. Experts point out that cloud-based options may also serve to further boost consumer interest in free-to-play scenarios.
E-sports levels up
South Asia-based gamers of all skill levels and preferences are enjoying an expanding universe of choices, with the proliferation of gaming genres focused on everything from strategy to e-sports. As the mobile gaming market in this region continues its rapid scale-up, it is in particular lifting e-sports platforms along with it, built on a cultural base of sports-related gaming.
The Mobile Legends Big Bang (MLBB) World Championship took place in Jakarta in 2023, and in the previous years in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. Numerous fans held watch parties across Southeast Asia to follow these and similar mobile gaming events.
Also in 2023, Singapore hosted the first in-person version of Olympic Esports Week, with the approval of the International Olympic Committee. This event featured more than 100 competitors from multiple countries taking part in 10 virtual athletic contests that included e-sports ranging from cycling to taekwondo.
The Philippines is enjoying an e-sports gaming boom within its own borders. The country’s national e-sports team is called SIBOL, with the name meaning “growth” in Filipino. SIBOL has formed a partnership with leading smartphone brand Realme to create e-sports tournaments. In Thailand, the mobile communications company Dtac created an e-sports package that optimized speed and access for gamers.
For the almost 700 million people living in Southeast Asia, gaming looks like it will be golden for a long time to come.
