The boom of Southeast Asia’s (SEA) online gaming market is difficult to ignore. Much of its rapid growth can be attributed to the fact that the region is largely mobile-first. According to Southeast Asia and Chinese Taipei Mobile Games Report & Five Year Forecast by ResearchAndMarkets, the region is home to over 500 million smartphone users, which will reach 628 million by 2023.
Gaming culture in SEA is still highly fragmented as each country has its own nuances. If marketers want to connect with gaming communities properly, understanding their idiosyncrasies is crucial.
Nevertheless, there are over-arching commonalities that help put the SEA gaming market in perspective.
Game face on
For one, the ubiquity of mobile has created a low barrier of entry for anyone looking to get involved, and smartphones are quickly becoming the gaming platform of choice for both casual and competitive gamers. For example, highly popular games such as PUBG and Garena’s Free Fire don’t require high-end phones to play.
Since the region is made up of players with mixed-income levels, this has helped democratise gaming talent. The new generation of gamers will be able to compete at a high level without expensive hardware, therefore levelling the playing field, naturally resulting in SEA claiming the title of fastest-growing region for e-sports worldwide.
Last year alone, the e-sports gaming scene saw more than 50,000 competing teams. An Esports Charts report highlighted Arena of Valor (ROV) and PUBG Mobile as the top two leading games in the Asian market.
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Arena of Valor claimed the title of most-viewed e-sports mobile game, amassing a total of 72 million hours watched over the past year, peaking at 764,000 viewers tuning in at the World Cup held in 2019.
Another battle royale, PUBG Mobile, has earned the silver spot, collecting a total of 55 million hours watched in 2019. Its most popular tournament, PUBG Mobile Club Open Spring Split Global Finals, gathered 596,000 viewers at its peak.
The total prize pool for the PUBG Mobile Club Open will be increased to US$5 million in 2020, reflecting significant participation growth ahead.
Where there is competition, there is talent, and the fandom will follow. Online gaming communities are rife with influencers that have built a reputation out of streaming gameplay and lifestyle content, generating a large and highly engaged following.
Each market typically supports homegrown talents. Bacon Time, Thailand’s top Arena of Valor team has 640,000 YouTube and over 300,000 Facebook subscribers. Resurgence, competing in AOV, Mobile Legends, and Hearthstone in Singapore has over 400,000 social followers.
Fandom ecosystem
Fans’ devotion extends beyond just consuming content. Gamers often receive large donations from their fans, showing how deep-rooted audience support really is. Donating money is seen as a way to cheer for their favourite gamer and for fans to feel as though they have contributed to their success.
In a way, these fandoms are like self-sustaining ecosystems that collectively make up SEA’s broader gaming community. Players rely on their fans’ support to propel them further in their gaming careers – the equivalent of a political candidate rising to prominence through crowdfunding campaigns before they go mainstream.
Brand value
In this respect, the growth of SEA’s gaming culture has been fairly organic, but it is still nascent. For it to scale, we must find ways to connect the dots between gamers looking to professionalise their talent, and the brands or agencies that can grant them that opportunity.
To do that requires arming gamers with the business-savvy and skills they need to build their brand. It will be fundamental to developing their talents into something long-term and scalable.
Initiatives can be as simple as sharing industry insights, giving guidance on content planning to help build relevance, or how to work with brands while staying true to their authentic voice.
On the other side, brands must better understand the dynamics of gaming culture in diverse regions such as SEA, and how to best operate within it.
Fortunately, a fair amount is being done to catalyse gaming as the ‘industry to watch’ not just in SEA, but the world over. For example, e-sports was recognised as a medal sport in the SEA Games 2019 in the Philippines, and it will also be recognised in the 2022 Asian Games and potentially in the 2028 Olympics.
Singapore is undertaking initiatives to position itself as an e-sports hub – hosting gaming trade shows such as ‘Gamescom’, and competitions such as the ‘Singapore Major’, with a prize pool of S$1.36 million (US$940,000), this year.
In the academic world, university degrees and higher-education courses are focused on the business dynamics of gaming, with some colleges also offering varsity e-sports programs and scholarships for students.
Brands looking to seize SEA’s growth opportunity need to get involved now if they want to guarantee their relevance in gaming once the region really takes off.
Needless to say, the appetite for online gaming is there and it’s hugely driven by both fans and gamers themselves. The infrastructure of SEA’s gaming ecosystem is still in its infancy, but its growth is both rapid and extremely promising. It won’t be long before the region cements itself as the global frontrunner and once it does, its momentum will only get faster. Game on!
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