ReportSocialPeta
Insights into Marketing Trends in Southeast Asian Mobile Games in 2024
16 Oct 202424 pages~13 min full read
Video-centric marketing is the dominant strategy in Southeast Asia, accounting for nearly 70% of all ad creatives across all mobile game genres.
Indonesia is the region's largest market by advertiser volume with 12.3K monthly advertisers, while Thailand leads in content intensity with over 100 creatives per advertiser.
The Southeast Asian mobile gaming market saw a 9.5% year-over-year increase in active advertisers, averaging over 20,000 per month between January and August 2024.
Casual games hold the largest market share at 28.4% of advertisers, but RPGs are the most aggressive marketers, contributing 16% of total creatives.
Strategy games (SLGs) are the leaders in format innovation, with 76.5% of their advertisements utilizing video.
Android remains the primary platform for the region, representing over 70% of advertisers in markets like Indonesia, whereas iOS platforms feature a higher ratio of image-based creatives.
Successful regional campaigns are increasingly leveraging localized content, including Thai celebrity endorsements and TikTok-style audio synchronization, to compete in the crowded media-buying landscape.
The Southeast Asian mobile gaming market in 2024 is characterized by high advertiser activity and a strategic shift toward video-centric marketing. Data collected between January and August 2024 reveals a monthly average of over 20,000 active advertisers in the region, representing a 9.5% year-over-year increase. While the proportion of new advertisers remained stable at approximately 3.7%, a significant surge occurred in June, where new game advertisers reached 8.5% of the total market.
Geographically, Indonesia leads the region in the volume of monthly advertisers with 12.3K, surpassing major markets like Japan and South Korea. However, Thailand remains the most intensive in terms of content volume, serving as the only country in the region to exceed 100 monthly creatives per advertiser. From a platform perspective, Android dominates the landscape, accounting for over 70% of advertisers in markets like Indonesia, though iOS users see a higher proportion of image-based creatives.
Genre analysis indicates that while casual games maintain the largest share of advertisers at 28.4%, Role-Playing Games (RPGs) are the most aggressive marketers. RPGs account for 16% of total creatives, a figure significantly higher than the global average. Strategy games (SLGs) lead in format innovation, with 76.5% of their ads utilizing video. Across all genres, video is the dominant medium, making up nearly 70% of all creatives, with a growing trend toward using local influencers, live-action footage, and "mini-game" playables to drive engagement.
The findings are based on sampling from SocialPeta’s database of 1.6 billion ad creatives across 70 global channels. The methodology combines statistical forecasting with desk research to track advertising intelligence across Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Cambodia. Findings suggest that successful regional campaigns increasingly rely on localized content, such as Thai celebrity endorsements and TikTok-inspired audio synchronization, to navigate the fierce competition in the Southeast Asian media-buying landscape.
