Market Analysis reports and market data
Documents
Southeast Asia Gaming Consumer Economy
The "Southeast Asia Gaming Consumer Economy" report, co-authored by Telekom Malaysia and twimbit in Q2 2022, analyzes the gaming landscape, gamer demographics, preferences, and growth opportunities across six major Southeast Asian markets: Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.
- The Southeast Asian gaming population is projected to reach 367.8 million by 2025, with Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam accounting for 85% of the total regional gamer base.
- Mobile gaming is the dominant market force, generating 70% of in-game revenue and achieving a 13.7% CAGR in consumer spending between 2018 and 2021, reaching a total of US$5.57 billion.
- Monetization is heavily reliant on free-to-play models with in-app purchases, which account for 86% of total revenue, though hybrid and subscription models are increasingly utilized.
Gaming and Esports in Vietnam: A New Arena for Brands
The document, "Gaming and Esports in Vietnam: A New Arena for Brands," asserts that esports has transitioned into a mainstream cultural phenomenon, presenting substantial opportunities for brands, particularly within the Vietnamese market.
- Vietnam has the world's highest adult gamer rate at 85%, with a demographic where 70% of the population is under 25 and one-third of citizens are engaged in esports.
- Mobile gaming dominates the market, supported by high smartphone penetration and 4G coverage, with gamers typically spending 1–3 hours per session.
- Influencer marketing is highly effective, as 51% of gamers trust key opinion leader (KOL) recommendations and 42% report purchasing products endorsed by them.
Vietnam Gaming Outlook 2026: Building Sustainable Growth
The "Vietnam Gaming Outlook 2026" document asserts that the Vietnamese mobile gaming industry is at a critical juncture, needing to transition from its current status as a global leader in mobile game downloads to a significant player in revenue generation.
- Vietnam’s mobile gaming sector is shifting from an ad-driven model to hybrid-casual titles prioritizing in-app purchases (IAP) and subscriptions, following a 65% surge in local IAP growth in 2025.
- While Vietnam led global Google Play downloads with 6.1 billion installs in 2024, the market generated only $430 million, highlighting the profitability ceiling of pure advertising models.
- Localized pricing strategies, including purchasing power parity tiers and one-tap tokenized payments, can increase conversion rates by over 20% and reduce checkout abandonment by up to 30%.
Shooter Monthly #4: The World's Biggest Shooter May Surprise & The Thing Highguard Needs to Learn
The global shooter market has reached a state of equilibrium dominated by a duopoly of Battle Royale and tactical genres, creating a challenging environment for new entrants.
- The global shooter market is dominated by mobile-first titles like Free Fire and PUBG Mobile, which command significantly higher monthly active user counts than traditional premium PC and console shooters.
- Modern shooter success is increasingly driven by experiential gameplay and high-frequency engagement loops rather than strictly competitive, high-stakes outcomes.
- The 'shadow drop' launch model is no longer a viable strategy, as modern players have little tolerance for the technical instability and lack of tactical depth seen in recent failures like Highguard.
Aream & Co. Gaming CEO Survey 2025
The Aream & Co. Gaming CEO Survey 2025 assesses the outlook of gaming industry leaders regarding consumer spending, market dynamics, and operational strategies for the upcoming year.
- Industry sentiment for 2025 is largely stable or positive, with 98% of CEOs reporting that consumer spending will be either unchanged (49%) or more optimistic (49%).
- M&A activity is expected to accelerate, with 71% of executives anticipating an increase in deal-making throughout 2025.
- In-app purchases are the primary revenue driver, with 80% of respondents optimistic about growth compared to only 41% for in-app advertising.
Family-First Gaming: Breaking Into Consumer Hardware with Nex
Nex has established a significant presence in the competitive console market by pivoting from mobile-based athletic training software to a dedicated hardware ecosystem centered on movement-based, family-oriented play.
- Nex successfully transitioned from mobile software to a dedicated hardware ecosystem, selling over 650,000 Nex Playground units in the previous year.
- The company’s retail strategy utilizes interactive demo fixtures in nearly 6,000 stores, which generate over one million monthly trials and account for more than 50% of total unit sales.
- Nex maintains a subscription-based model for continuous content updates, utilizing edge AI for privacy and child safety instead of cloud-based data storage.
Highguard’s Character Conundrum, Valve’s New Lawsuit, and Dispatch Censorship | Games For Breakfast
The modern gaming landscape is defined by intense market saturation and significant structural instability, as evidenced by the rapid decline of titles like Highguard.
- Valve is facing a lawsuit in the UK alleging that the company used its dominant position in the PC gaming market to engage in price-fixing, a case that has survived an initial motion to dismiss.
- The hero shooter 'Highguard' has struggled to gain traction following its launch, hampered by a lack of clear character identity and intense competition from titles like 'Deadlock,' which saw 98,000 concurrent players despite being unreleased.
- Highguard’s monetization model includes a 'Warbond' style battle pass that allows players to retain and complete content on their own schedule, alongside a commitment to avoid 'pay-to-win' mechanics.
State of Mobile 2026: 9 Trends That Matter
The mobile ecosystem is undergoing a fundamental transition from a volume-based growth model to a monetization-first strategy.
- The mobile market has shifted from volume-based growth to a monetization-first model, evidenced by a 1% stagnation in global downloads contrasted with an 11% surge in in-app purchase revenue.
- Non-game applications are currently outperforming the gaming sector, recording a 21% year-over-year revenue increase compared to the 1% growth seen in gaming.
- The United States remains the dominant revenue driver, accounting for 35% of global totals, while Western Europe and Brazil are identified as the most critical emerging growth regions.
🤬 Meta is NOT back on iOS. We have been FOOLED!
Meta’s recent, transient surge in iOS advertising revenue does not represent a technological breakthrough or a successful circumvention of Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) framework.
- Meta’s recent spike in iOS advertising revenue was a temporary anomaly driven by aggressive ad formats rather than a circumvention of Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) framework.
- The performance surge lasted only 48 hours, as the use of intrusive end-cards and double-ad templates led to a sharp decline in user retention that neutralized initial gains.
- Meta has failed to regain its pre-2021 market dominance on iOS, as the underlying signal loss issues caused by privacy-centric restrictions remain unresolved.
Connecting Digital Investments and Real Estate: Malaysia’s Competitive Advantage
A February 2026 whitepaper from Knight Frank Malaysia and MDEC argues that Malaysia's digital investment momentum now needs to be matched by better-aligned real estate.
- Malaysia has attracted RM 342.6 billion in approved digital investments, with 95 percent of these projects concentrated in the Klang Valley, Johor, and Penang.
- The Klang Valley serves as the primary digital hub, accounting for approximately 75 percent of the nation's total digital foreign direct investment.
- Digital-sector employment across these investment clusters generates a total value of RM 13.9 billion.
Ubisoft turmoil and what happened to Big Fish Games? | Week in Mobile Games podcast
Aristocrat Leisure has effectively dismantled Big Fish Games, opting to divest its assets through multiple transactions after failing to secure a buyer for the company as a whole.
- Ubisoft is facing significant internal instability, including a 40% drop in share price following restructuring announcements and a proposed 200-role voluntary termination plan at its Paris headquarters, which has triggered a three-day strike by labor unions.
- Aristocrat Leisure has effectively dismantled Big Fish Games, a company it acquired for $990 million in 2018, by divesting assets into a new entity called BFG Entertainment and ceasing the development of new titles.
- Netflix is shifting its gaming strategy to prioritize cloud-first experiences centered on TV play rather than mobile downloads, a move industry analysts suggest is primarily intended to reduce subscriber churn.
PUBG Never Died. Krafton Just Forgot Why It Worked
Krafton faces a strategic crossroads common to companies defined by a single massive success.
- PUBG remains a massive commercial anchor for Krafton, maintaining approximately 40 million daily active users across its global platforms.
- Krafton is shifting its strategy from speculative, disparate acquisitions toward a disciplined focus on expanding the PUBG ecosystem through new titles like the 5v5 shooter Blindspot and the extraction-based Black Budget.
- The company is adopting a platform-based model for PUBG that incorporates user-generated content to drive long-term engagement, similar to the strategies used by competitors like Fortnite and Roblox.