Gaming Survey by GameStart Asia for Potential Opportunities to Engage Southeast Asia Market!

Home is a place where everyone gets comfortable and relax after their hectic schedules, but that’s not all. Home is also another battle zone, a spaceship or even a haunted forest! That applies to a lot of the Southeast Asian gamers as well! These home based gamers also seek to enjoy more multiplayer experiences and are more willingly to spend on games. They usually get their daily gaming content needs from YouTube and have a soft spot for game franchise collectibles and apparel. These are the key findings of the inaugural dip pool on Southeast Asian gamers for GameStart Asia. Conducted by Eliphant, organisers of GameStart Asia, the online survey received feedback from close to 2,000 respondents, between the ages of 17 – 45 years old, from Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam and Brunei.

“GameStart began five years ago to create an event that gamers in Singapore and this region would want to attend. At a point when there were scant insights on the local and regional gaming scene, the success of our first edition proved that there is an active gaming community. Today, with red hot interest to understand the world’s fastest-growing games market , we see our role in the industry 1 evolving. The survey aims to shed light on what matters to these culturally diverse communities brought together by the passion for gaming, and better equip brands with the insights to engage meaningfully with them,” said Elicia Lee, Managing Director of Eliphant and Founder of GameStart Asia.

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Southeast Asian Gamers: Social Homebodies Willing to Invest in their Passion

The survey drew responses from students (51%) and working adults alike, with the majority being male gamers (82.1%). Most respondents enjoy playing within the comforts of their own homes (80.8%), while11.9% of respondents play in cybercafes and arcades, with a minority who play when they are on the move (2.7%). Multiplayer experiences are favoured, as nearly60%of respondents game with their friends.
While light gamers (33.6%) would spend only up to 10 hours a week on gaming,1 in 4 respondents invest more than 4 hours a day on average (more than 30 hours each week) honing their gaming skills. Their gaming platform of choice remains the PC, as gamers spent the most time on PC games (59.1%), followed by mobile games (28.1%), and consoles such as the Sony PlayStation and Nintendo Switch (12.1%).

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Despite half of the respondents being students, gamers are willing to pay for their desired gaming experience – more than1 in 2 (52.9%) will purchase a game, although most (74.5%) do not pre-order their games. On average,3 in 4gamers (71.9%) spent up to SGD500 a year, among which more than half spent at least SGD100 annually.

Role-playing games (RPG), first person shooter (FPS) games, and Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) were among the top top game genres played by respondents. Awareness and exposure to VR games is low, with only 3% of respondents having tried it.

Top 5 game genres played by Southeast Asian Gamers

Role-playing game (RPG) 21.5%
First Person Shooter (FPS) 18.3%
Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) 13.6%
Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) 13.6%
Fighting 11.4%

Singaporean Gamer Snapshot

Similar to the region, Singaporean gamers prefer to play at home (89.7%) on the PC (53.6%), with mobile games coming in second at 27.7%. Nearly1 in 2(42%) respondents game for more than 20 hours per week. The proportion of light gamers (playing no more than 10 hours a week) in Singapore stood at 32.4%, while1 in 4 (24.5%) are heavy gamers who invest more than 30 hours a week. There was a slightly bigger proportion of solo players in Singapore compared to the region, with just 54.6% of local respondents indicating that they play with their friends.
More Singaporean gamers prefer paid games: More than4 in 5play paid games, although 63.2% of respondents do not pre-order their games. They are versatile gamers, with80% of respondents who play on at least 2 different platforms – the most popular being the PC at 46%, followed by console (23%) and mobile (18%). On their gaming experience, Singaporean respondents tend to spend more than the average gamer, with 65% spending up to SGD500 a year, and 14.6% spending over SGD1,000 a year.

Potato chips was the snack of choice for Singaporean gamers as well. Unlike their overseas peers though,79% of Singaporean gamers prefer non-carbonated drinks and plain water, such as a variety of teas (32%) and plain water (26%).

Role-playing games (RPG), first person shooter (FPS) games, and Simulation games were among the top game genres played by local players

Top 5 game genres played by Singaporean Gamers

Role-playing game (RPG) 22.1%
First Person Shooter (FPS) 9.3%
Simulation 7.8%
Third Party Shooters 7.3%
Fighting Games, Massive Multiplayer Online 6.8%

New Game Announcements at GameStart 2019!

GameStart 2019 will also play host to a number of Asia exclusives (outside of Japan), and visitors will be among the first in Asia to get their hands on the following:

MARVEL Super War
Marvel’s Avengers
Final Fantasy VII Remake
Disney Tsum Tsum Festival (Bandai Namco Entertainment)
Just Dance 2020 (Ubisoft)
BlazBlue Cross Battle Tag 2.0 (Arc System Works)
MISTOVER (Arc System Work)
UNDER NIGHT IN-BIRTH Exe:Late[cl-r] (Arc System Works)
Iron Man VR

Cyberpunk 2077 by CDProjekt Red will also showcase a special game play video that has only been shown to audiences in large western shows like E3 and Gamescom!