Niko Partners: Southeast Asia's games market forecast to hit $6.47 billion in 2029

• Southeast Asia's games market generated $5.37 billion in 2024, up 5.2% year-over-year.

Pocket Gamer Connects Summit Korea takes place on October 31st, offering insights into the Asia market and beyond.

As we lead up to the show, we've been reached out to speakers and local companies to get their views on the regional industry.

We spoke with Niko Partners director for Southeast Asia and East Asia research Darang Candra to get the lowdown on the latest market data and what the state of play is for the region's games market.

This interview was conducted as part of our region spotlight, which you can view here.

PocketGamer.biz: How would you assess the Southeast Asian games scene at the moment? 

Darang Candra: According to our Southeast Asia Market Model and Five-Year Forecast, the region generated $5.37 billion in games revenue in 2024, up 5.2% year-over-year. Revenue is expected to continue growing in 2025, albeit at a slower growth rate. 

Young gamers are also one of Southeast Asia’s defining strengths. Young gamers are avid adopters of new payment technologies, with digital wallets recorded to be the most popular payment platforms for games in the region for the past few years. Today, more than 75% of Southeast Asian gamers use digital wallets to pay for games.   

What opportunities do you see in Southeast Asia's games industry?  

Niko Partners has tracked Southeast Asia’s games market for the past 11 years. The region has seen massive growth in the past decade, driven by high adoption of game devices (particularly mobile), strong game communities and social activities, growing social acceptance of games — particularly esports — as a popular mode of entertainment, and high social media and video platform usages pertaining to game contents. 

Southeast Asian gamers are highly social, with more than 45% of gamers want in-game chat and rank/scoreboard feature in their games. 52% of SEA gamers watch game livestreams, higher than the Asia-MENA average of 45%. Game livestreams remain a popular activity for SEA gamers. 

And what challenges do you see? 

The main challenge is the slower growth of the games market due to current economic and political issues faced by some of the countries in the region, although we project the growth to rebound in the coming years. 

What is your outlook for the sector? If we speak again in five years, where do you hope Southeast Asia's games market to be?  

The region's market is expected to grow 1.8% in 2025 to $5.47 billion. The market is forecasted to reach $6.47 billion in 2029 at a five-year CAGR of 3.8%. 

The Southeast Asia video games market had 285.82 million gamers in 2024, up 3.1% Y/Y. This will grow a further 1.5% to 290 million in 2025 and reach 324.4 million in 2029 at a 5-year CAGR of 2.6%.

What more do you think the region's games sector needs? I.e. more support from government, more investment in general?  

Government support is always crucial in this region as the games industry is not as established as in East Asian countries, for example. Having clear regulations that do not hamper the industry while balancing it with the need to safeguard players (especially minors) is important.

Investment is also another key to developing the region’s games sector, as there are opportunities from both the production side and the consumer side. 

Who do you see as the key players in the Southeast Asian games scene in 2025? 

Companies that are able to harness the social and competitive aspects of Southeast Asian player base are able to find success in the region.

In 2025, we have seen the continuous popularity of esports titles from publishers such as Moonton (Mobile Legends), Garena (Free Fire), and Tencent (Honor of Kings). Other companies that manage to gain success in their respective niches include Infold (Love and Deepspace), Konami (eFootball), and EA (EA FC). 

Locally developed games are also gaining more press and popularity within the region and beyond. Notable titles that have seen success include Coral Island (Indonesia), Gigabash (Malaysia), Cat Quest (Singapore), and Home Sweet Home: Online (Thailand).