Southeast Asia has become a fertile and extremely potential market for mobile games. The Esports ecosystem in this region also attracts many large investors.
In the world, each region will often favor specific Esports disciplines: League of Legends is the “national” game in Korea, the FPS game series is dominated by EU and US countries, while mobile games develop endlessly. strong in Asia, and especially in Southeast Asia.
The 4 mobile games currently dominating in Southeast Asia are Free Fire, Lien Quan, PUBG Mobile and Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, which have millions of views at major events and attract a large fan base in countries in the region.
According to statistics in 2021, Mobile Legends contributes 3 events out of the 10 tournaments with the largest number of views. Meanwhile, Free Fire World Series 2021 has up to 5.4 million live views at the same time, creating a new record in the Esports world.
Lucas Mao, Global Esports CEO of Moonton Games shared: “Southeast Asia is really the land of mobile games. Traditional PC games or even some sports don’t really get attention. The mobile game market and Esports tournaments for mobile games have had the opportunity to create their own playing field in the arena.”
The lack of infrastructure for traditional sports is also highlighted by Jayf Soh, CEO and owner of Esports organization RSG:
“Southeast Asia does not have the best infrastructure for sports, which presents certain obstacles to the development of sports in some countries in the region, such as the Philippines or the Philippines. Indonesia.
Meanwhile, mobile games are one of the easiest and least expensive forms of entertainment. With games becoming the most popular form of entertainment and the fastest growing sport, mobile Esports has become an inevitable trend.”
Low income is also one of the reasons leading to the development of mobile games. A lot of people can’t afford an expensive PC or video game console, so the dominance of mobile games is an inevitable consequence.
A large and potential market has naturally attracted many investors as well as game developers and publishers, thereby creating major tournaments in the region. This has resulted in a diverse Esports ecosystem unmatched anywhere in the world.
According to Mr. Soh, the key to the success of tournaments and Esports organizers lies in focusing on the right market:
“Southeast Asia has a diversity of nature and culture. Although many people think that this is one region, in fact Southeast Asia consists of many different countries and cultures.
This is divided even in terms of media, some countries will prioritize Youtube, others will favor Facebook, some other countries will use their own social networks. These are 10 completely separate countries, with 10 different economies and societies.”
Moonton’s Global Esports CEO shared the same opinion. To enter the Southeast Asian market, publishers need to have a specific plan for each country and have certain understanding of the culture, society as well as the gaming community here. He believes: “Esports includes connection and experience”.
