Southeast Asian players downloaded 1.93 billion mobile games in Q1 2025 and spent $625 million through app stores. Sensor Tower ranks the region second worldwide on downloads and seventh on revenue.
This guide covers Southeast Asia mobile gaming by country, off-store payments, Niko Partners forecasts to 2030, Vietnam, top genres, Garena’s Q2 2026 results and 2025 esports viewership.
Southeast Asia Mobile Gaming Statistics
1.93 Billion Downloads, $625 Million Spent: Southeast Asia Mobile Gaming by Country, Q1 2025
Downloads rose 3% on Q4 2024, while in-app purchase (IAP) revenue rose 1%. The countries that lead on installs are not the ones that lead on spending.
Which country downloads the most mobile games?
Indonesia recorded 870 million mobile game downloads in Q1 2025, up 9% quarter on quarter. The Philippines followed with 366 million and Vietnam with 329 million.
Sensor Tower counts App Store and Google Play downloads only. Pre-installs, re-downloads and third-party Android stores are excluded.
Downloads do not measure play time, which is tracked separately in weekly gaming hours by country.
Source: Sensor Tower, Southeast Asian Mobile Game Market Insights 2025, Q1 2025
Which country spends the most on mobile games?
| Country | Mobile game IAP revenue, Q1 2025 | Change vs Q4 2024 |
|---|---|---|
| Thailand | $162 million | -6% |
| Indonesia | $118 million | +1% |
| Malaysia | $103 million | +7% |
Source: Sensor Tower, Southeast Asian Mobile Game Market Insights 2025, Q1 2025
Thailand tops regional IAP revenue despite missing the top three for downloads. Sensor Tower attributes this to Thailand’s digital payment systems and willingness to spend in apps.
How Much Southeast Asia Mobile Gaming Revenue Passes Through App Stores?
91% of downloads came from Google Play, H1 2024
57% of IAP revenue came from Google Play, H1 2024
Southeast Asia recorded 4.2 billion mobile game downloads in H1 2024, up 3.4% on the prior half. IAP revenue fell 3.0% to $1.16 billion, close to its H1 2020 level.
Google Play carried 91% of those downloads but 57% of the revenue.
Source: Sensor Tower, Southeast Asian Mobile Game Market Insights 2024, H1 2024
App-store trackers miss a share of spending. Nearly one-third of players in Niko Partners’ 2026 SEA-6 reports prefer buying in-game content through out-of-app payment methods.
Thai respondents showed the strongest preference, at over 35.0%. Platform scope matters in other comparisons too, such as mobile versus console revenue.
Source: Niko Partners, SEA-6 market reports, published August 2026
Southeast Asia Games Market Forecasts: $5.9 Billion in 2026
| Market | Player spending | Year |
|---|---|---|
| SEA-6 total | Over $5.6 billion | 2025 (reported) |
| SEA-6 total | $5.9 billion | 2026 (forecast) |
| SEA-6 total | $7.0 billion | 2030 (forecast) |
| Thailand | Over $2 billion | 2026 (forecast) |
| Indonesia | $1.5 billion | 2030 (forecast) |
Source: Niko Partners, 2026 Market Model and SEA-6 reports, published June to August 2026
Niko Partners reports 4.7% growth for 2025 and projects a 4.8% five-year CAGR to 2030. Its six markets are Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
The model excludes console gaming in Southeast Asia. Player numbers are forecast to pass 300 million in 2026, with Indonesia above 126 million.
IMARC Group uses a mobile-only scope. It sizes the Southeast Asia mobile gaming market at $3.7 billion in 2025 and projects $7.2 billion by 2034, a 7.33% CAGR.
The two firms define the market differently, so their totals should not be added or netted. Worldwide totals sit in separate gaming industry revenue figures.
Source: IMARC Group, South East Asia Mobile Gaming Market report, 2025 base year
What Do Vietnam Mobile Gaming Statistics Show for 2025?
Vietnam’s mobile game market generated $825 million in 2025, up 9.16% year on year, according to Gamota’s Vietnam Mobile Gaming Year-in-Review 2025.
The report counts about 54 million mobile gamers and an average revenue per user of $15.27.
Only 7% to 10% of Vietnamese mobile players spend money on games. Between 2% and 3% qualify as high spenders.
Gamota reports cash flow moving toward domestic payment methods rather than international app stores.
Source: Gamota, Vietnam Mobile Gaming Year-in-Review 2025, published February 2026
Strategy and RPG Lead Southeast Asian In-App Spending
Strategy took 24% of the region’s mobile game revenue from January to August 2024. RPG followed with 23%.
Sports game revenue rose 39% period over period, led by eFootball 2024 and EA SPORTS FC Mobile Soccer. eFootball 2024 topped the revenue growth chart and ranked second on revenue.
Mobile Legends: Bang Bang stayed first on revenue after a 6% rise. Simulation was the most-downloaded genre, reaching 1.2 billion downloads, up 11%.
Garena Free Fire led regional downloads, with a 54% gain across Southeast Asia. Honor of Kings launched regionally in June 2024 and ranked third for download growth.
Worldwide spending by monetization model is covered separately in data on gacha game revenue.
Source: Sensor Tower, Southeast Asian Mobile Game Market Insights 2024, January to August 2024
Is Free Fire Publisher Garena Still Growing?
Garena’s paying user ratio rose to 10.2% in Q2 2026 from 9.3% a year earlier, per Sea Limited. Quarterly paying users climbed 10.2% to 68.1 million.
Quarterly active users were 666.3 million, against 664.8 million in Q2 2025. Average bookings per user increased from $0.99 to $1.15.
Bookings reached $763.5 million, up 15.5%. Adjusted EBITDA was $429.8 million, or 56.3% of bookings.
Free Fire drew over 100 million average daily active users, a figure set against PC data in this battle royale player count comparison.
Sea reports Garena globally, without a Southeast Asia split. Sensor Tower lists Free Fire from Singapore as the top global download in Q1 2025.
Source: Sea Limited, Second Quarter 2026 Results, quarter ended June 30, 2026
Mobile Esports Viewership in Southeast Asia, 2025
Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (MLBB) filled five of the ten places on Esports Charts’ 2025 mobile ranking by hours watched, including the top four.
MPL Indonesia Season 15 led with 113,297,084 hours watched. Arena of Valor, whose Arena of Glory league runs in Vietnam, held four places.
| Tournament, 2025 | Game | Peak viewers |
|---|---|---|
| MPL Indonesia Season 15 | MLBB | 4,132,224 |
| MPL Indonesia Season 16 | MLBB | 3,110,921 |
| MLBB Mid Season Cup 2025 | MLBB | 3,069,302 |
| ESL Snapdragon Pro Series: Mobile Masters 2025 | MLBB | 2,769,107 |
| MPL Philippines Season 15 | MLBB | 1,802,089 |
Source: Esports Charts, Most viewed mobile esports events of 2025, calendar year 2025
Esports Charts excludes Chinese streaming platforms from these totals. Platform splits are tracked separately in YouTube Gaming and Twitch viewership data.
The 33rd Southeast Asian Games men’s Arena of Valor event peaked at 1,042,982 viewers in December 2025. On-site crowds are a separate measure, covered in esports tournament attendance figures.
Source: Esports Charts, Most viewed mobile esports events of 2025, calendar year 2025
FAQs
Which Southeast Asian country spends the most on mobile games?
Thailand. It generated $162 million in mobile game in-app purchase revenue in Q1 2025, ahead of Indonesia at $118 million and Malaysia at $103 million, according to Sensor Tower.
How big is the Southeast Asia gaming market?
Niko Partners puts SEA-6 player spending at over $5.6 billion in 2025 and forecasts $5.9 billion for 2026, excluding console. IMARC Group sizes the mobile segment alone at $3.7 billion in 2025.
What is the most popular mobile game in Southeast Asia?
It depends on the metric. Sensor Tower ranked Mobile Legends: Bang Bang first by regional revenue and Garena Free Fire first by regional downloads from January to August 2024.
How many gamers are there in Southeast Asia?
More than 300 million in 2026, based on a Niko Partners forecast for Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Indonesia alone counts over 126 million gamers.
Are Reddit figures on Southeast Asia mobile game spending reliable?
Check each figure’s source. Trackers such as Sensor Tower cover app stores only, while Niko Partners found nearly one-third of regional players prefer paying outside apps. Store-only numbers leave that spending out.
Citations
- https://sensortower.com/blog/southeast-asia-mobile-gaming-2025
- https://nikopartners.com/7-billion-in-2030-opportunities-in-southeast-asias-video-game-markets/
- https://cdn.sea.com/investor/2Q2026/wFBC39MbqnfLb3MGY6LP/2026.08.11%20Sea%20Second%20Quarter%202026%20Results.pdf
- https://escharts.com/news/most-viewed-mobile-esports-events-2025
- https://www.quantumrun.com/consulting/mobile-game-statistics/
- https://www.companieshistory.com/gaming-industry-in-asia
