Discussing Mobile Game Preferences in Southeast Asia with Googlegram

No platform has more opportunities for game developers and publishers than mobile. This is most evident in Asia, where 1.21 billion mobile gamers – more than half of the world’s mobile gaming population – consistently represent a large share of mobile gaming revenue worldwide.

Because mobile games are more accessible and less expensive than previous PC and console games, they give publishers a direct path to more players than ever before. This gives game developers more freedom to experiment with more genres, monetization methods, and gameplay types.

With the mobile game change from control scheme from simple to more complex and immersive experiences, they also reveal more differences in the preferences of mobile gamers in the Asian region. Given the diversity of local cultures, traditions, and player preferences in Asia, successfully publishing a new mobile game can be more difficult than expected. The first step is to get to know the local players better.

Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia specifically is a region of many countries with their own cultures, communities and characteristics. The population of Southeast Asia is also one of the heaviest mobile internet users in the world. In 2019, 90% of Southeast Asia’s 360 million internet users (2/3 of the region’s population) accessed the internet using their mobile phones. In addition, mobile games in Southeast Asia have surpassed PC and console games in revenue and number of downloads.

In the last 5 years, developers from outside Asia have been outpaced by local teams who better understand the preferences of their residents. In Southeast Asia, attracting local gamers requires more than understanding language and art style. Understanding and respecting local culture and beliefs is even more important.

Compared to most other countries in the world, religion is very important in the daily lives of Southeast Asians. This fact changes some things that are acceptable in certain markets, but unacceptable here. Developers should be aware of respecting local customs and culture when promoting their games in each market.

An example is the Ramadan event held by Facebook Gaming in several countries, attracting the attention of gamers from Indonesia and Malaysia. There is also a TET New Year’s Mobile Legends event in Vietnam. In addition, developers from outside Southeast Asia have worked closely with local celebrities and community leaders to promote their games. For example, Garena Free Fire has collaborated with Joe Taslim, and Gravity Interactive is promoting Ragnarok M: Eternal Love in Thailand with the help of K-Pop star Lisa from Blackpink.

The Rapidly Growing World of Esports

One more thing that all developers should think about is the role of the community. In a 2019 survey from GameStart, 60% of Southeast Asian gamers prefer to play with friends and many of the region’s biggest games feature social and team gameplay.

Gamers in Southeast Asia have a strong desire to play in a community. This fact, together with government policies and support in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam have helped esports games and tournaments to thrive. Between 2018 and 2018, total prizes in Southeast Asia local tournaments grew 244%, and the region now has 5 esports games in the “Top 10 Grossing Chart” in 2019 compared to just 2 in 2016.

Garena’s Free Fire was the highest earning mobile game in Q1 2020 with 80 million players online simultaneously. To get their players involved during COVID-19, Garena held twice as many online Free Fire tournaments in the quarter as compared to the previous year. They got 90 million views for all those tournaments.