The market research company Niko Partners announced the availability of its 2015 Southeast Asian Games Market Report with Forecast through 2019 covering the six countries of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam for 2014-2019. Niko Partners reports the popularity of mobile games in Southeast Asia is growing faster than predicted, as the total number of people playing mobile games is expected to double those playing PC games in the region by 2019.
“The Southeast Asian games market is making a quick turn toward mobile games and
that is where most of the growth will come from,” said Lisa Cosmas Hanson, managing
partner of Niko Partners. “However, PC online games remain important and will
generate more revenue annually than mobile games, especially multiplayer online battle
arena (MOBA) games, shooters, and other strategy games. Competitive eSports games
and tournaments are driving growth on PC and increasingly will on mobile as well.”
Based on a survey of roughly 8,400 game players across six Southeast Asian countries, Niko predicts that revenue from online PC games played in the region will hit $1.3 billion by 2019, while revenue from mobile games will hit $1.1 billion. However, the survey suggests that mobile games are seeing a significant uptick in popularity and by 2019 Niko expects roughly 400 million people to be playing mobile games in Southeast Asia, while only 219 million are expected to be regularly playing PC games. The biggest market in the region is Vietnam, though Thailand is a close second and Indonesia has the greatest growth potential.
In addition, the methodology included interviews with executives at major Southeast Asian online games companies, payment companies, and more. The report provides market share estimates for online game operators in each country, and a list of their leading games. It also includes results from our gamer surveys, market sizes, forecasts, and analysis about both the PC online and mobile games segments.
It’s worth noting that Niko describes most of those surveyed as “young, male, hard core enthusiasts” who primarily play client-based online PC games, suggesting that a lot of those mobile game players in Southeast Asia will be playing PC games as well — but not vice versa.
The key takeaways from the report are:
- The number of mobile gamers far exceeds PC online gamers already, and by
2019 we project there will be 400 million mobile gamers and 214 million PC
online gamers, though most PC online gamers are also mobile gamers. - Higher smartphone penetration and higher average spending on mobile games in
several of the countries led us to restate our mobile games revenue size and
forecast 2014-2019e with a big increase in revenues. - Malaysia has the highest percentage of Internet users who are online gamers in
2015 at 78%. - The Philippines is likely to enjoy the fastest 5-year growth in mobile games
revenue at 31% from 2014 to 2019.
If you’re thinking about localizing your game for Southeast Asia, here is the link for more information: Report
