The Asia-Pacific region is known to be the biggest and fastest growing markets across the globe when it comes to gaming. The area is growing in social gaming, digital gaming and casino gaming. Study also shows that the region is experiencing the fastest growth in mobile gaming owing to the increased use and ownership of smartphones, broadband and social media accounts.
Mobile Gaming Exceeds PC Gaming
When looking at the gaming scene in Asia, it’s typically about China, Japan, and Korea. However, over the recent years, the Southeast Asian market has shown a huge potential; and these include the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Thailand.
According to a survey from players, and interviews with game company executives, among others, these are the markets that will show industry growth. By 2018, Indonesia is projected to show the highest revenue growth, while Vietnam is expected to carry the day in terms of the leading market in online player base.
Moreover, the Philippines is the only Asian country to license online gambling. This makes it a burgeoning market for online gaming as well. In the Philippines and other Asian countries, online poker is one of the most loved games. While some people play it to earn a living, others engage in it purely for recreational and social reasons. Players are advised to use only trusted poker rooms.
Overall, the gaming market in Southeast Asia is at times compared to China’s games market, although Southeast Asia trails behind the Chinese market a few years. China gamers have been playing longer and they often continue to adopt the Massively Multiplayer Online Roller-Playing Games (MMORPGs), which usually generate higher income.
Besides, gamers in both Southeast Asia and China embrace mobile games in addition to battle arena games and shooters. Reports reveal that the gamers in Southeast Asia don’t like the MMORPGs adored by older Chinese gamers. The trend has triggered game developers to focus more on creating games that the Southeast Asian players prefer.
Asia is a fascinating testbed for mobile gaming development mainly because many Asian countries do advance the incredible mobile games such as Soul Clash (China), Raven with Naver (Korea), and Monster Strike (Japan). The increased growth of smartphones and mobile apps fuels the development of new games in the region. The recent emergence of mobile gaming and smartphone industry in Asia may be attributed to stiff competition among information technology companies, favorable information technology policies, and enthusiastic mobile gamers in the area.
Online Casino Gaming in Asia
As aforementioned, the Philippines leads when it comes to online casino gaming around Asia. The overall market share of online casino gaming is rather small. This seems to be partly because of the different focus with regard to casino gaming. Within Asia, the focus seems to revolve about investing in brick and mortar gaming in destination resorts similar to those in Macau.
Compared to the UK, Asia is still catching up. The UK has the largest market for online gambling in the world. This is because of minimal legal restrictions for playing online gambling in the UK. While online gaming in the United States isn’t as booming fast as it is in Asia or the UK, it’s ahead of the world in terms of LTE roll out.
Consequently, there’s more broadband use in the US than elsewhere else. Most Asian countries are rolling out LT and use of broadband as well. Add this to the accessibility to affordable mobile phones and you’ve enough trigger for the increased growth in the Asian gaming market.
The Growing Games Market Favors Game Developers
The outstanding growth due to the growing mobile opportunities has motivated games developers and publishers to expand their market reach across Asia. Other than focusing on mobile gaming, there is a considerable trend in the growth of revenue for console games in Indonesia, India, the Philippines, and Thailand.
These emerging markets, particularly India and Indonesia, are expected to experience a compound annual growth rate of 9 to 14 percent. The expected growth in Southeast Asia has led to a rise in game localization in the area. Many people acknowledge the exponential growth rates, and thus continue to fuel the localization of the business.
Other Interesting Gaming Stats in Asia
For years, the Asia-Pacific market has dominated the video game market in the world. In 2015, revenue from that region’s gaming market reached US$ 43.1 billion, which is nearly twice the revenue of North America (the second placed gaming market). In Asia, the leading gaming markets are China, South Korea and Japan.
In 2014, the revenue from China’s video game industry reached around US$ 17.4, which showed a tremendous growth of about US$ 14.6 billion since 2008. Japan is the home to gaming giants like Namco Bandai and Nintendo. It is also Asia’s second largest gaming market. Asia’s mobile gaming revenue is expected to be at US$ 13.6 billion in 2017, a high of US$ 2.5 billion from 2014.
The mobile gaming industry in Southeast Asia region is projected to generate $US 7 billion in 2019.
