Top image credit: Gam3Asia, The Pantheon

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With an estimated population of over 650 million people across 11 countries, the Southeast Asian region is home to roughly 10% of the worldwide population. But what else do we know about its gaming habits and gaming populace? Well, this feature is all about that.

Know Thy Region

The most populous country is Indonesia with nearly 300m while despite being one of the smallest in terms of size and population, Singapore is the most densely populated country.

A rough estimate puts the number of internet users comfortably above the 300m mark, at 340m as of 2017 giving the region a 53% internet penetration rate overall. This number rises if only the top six most populated countries are taken into account, reaching the 60.45% mark. The country with the highest internet penetration rate is Singapore at about 81.2%. 

Utilizing data gathered to date, we analyze what makes the region special and while most of the findings tally up to 2017, they serve as a great indicator of the trends and potential (exponential) growth across the board.

Why Southeast Asia Is the Next Big Thing? 

Potential

• A 2015 report by Newzoo predicted a $1.1B Southeast Asian Games market in 2013 to double in value to $2.2B by 2017 (Fig 1. below).
• According to subsequent Newzoo findings, the SEA gaming market is projected to grow to $4.7B by 2019 (Fig 2. below).
• The region is being tapped by both Chinese & Japanese companies due to the potential of market growth and proximity.
• The region is a key focus by western-based publishers due to lower cost of operation without sacrificing talent level and growth potential.

Fig 1

Fig 2

Next Page: What Makes the Region So Enticing?