The Southeast Asian mobile gaming market has quickly emerged as a major growth driver in the global gaming industry, fueled by its young population and widespread smartphone use. In this competitive landscape, accurate market insights and effective strategies are essential for success. To support this need, SocialPeta has created the Insights into Southeast Asian mobile gaming marketing trends in 2024 report, which provides in-depth analysis of market trends, popular creatives and leading advertising strategies to help companies seize global opportunities and achieve success.
Top performing mobile gaming icons overseas in the Southeast Asian market
Source: SocialPeta
The average number of monthly advertisers exceeded 21,000, with new creative accounting for nearly 70% in July and August.
In 2024, the Southeast Asian mobile games market saw steady growth, averaging over 21,000 active advertisers per month – up 9.5% year-on-year – despite a brief dip in June and July. Overall, market performance remains strong.
New advertisers performed well in 2024, averaging 3.7% throughout the year and peaking at 8.5% in June, indicating a significant influx of new games. Despite lower numbers during the Lunar New Year, the growth trajectory of the Southeast Asian mobile games market remains positive.
Marketing Trends in Southeast Asia
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Source: SocialPeta
In 2024, new creative placements in the Southeast Asian mobile games market showed notable shifts. In July and August, 63.8% of advertisers launched new creative, reaching the highest level of the year, despite a slight decline of 0.8% year-on-year. On average, 39.6% of creatives were new, with a peak of 49.1% in June. These figures highlight advertisers’ focus on refreshing creative, especially mid-year, to increase ad appeal and engagement.
New advertising material
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Source: SocialPeta
Advertisers in Indonesia and the Philippines surpassed Japan and South Korea, with RPGs being the most competitive genre in marketing.
The mobile gaming advertising landscape in Asia Pacific shows significant regional variations. In Southeast Asia, Indonesia and the Philippines have surpassed Japan and South Korea in the number of advertisers, with an average of 12.3K and 9.8K per month respectively, while Vietnam follows closely behind with 9.2K. Thailand stands out for retaining more than 100 new creatives every month, with an average of 103, while Singapore and Malaysia follow with 94.
In total, Southeast Asia has an average of 20.1,000 advertisers and 110 new advertisements per month. However, most Southeast Asian countries, apart from Thailand, have fewer than 100 new creatives every month. Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, on the other hand, perform significantly better, with an average of 10.2k advertisers and 127 new ads per month, surpassing other regions.
Advertising by country/region
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Source: SocialPeta
RPGs (role-playing games) are the most competitive advertising category in Southeast Asia, with an average of 231 creatives per month: 16% of the total and 3.8 percentage points above the global average. This volume exceeds many other categories and surpasses strategy games with 50 creatives.
Casual games lead the advertiser share with 28.4% of the market, which is 1.4 percentage points higher than the global average. However, their share of creatives stands at 29.6%, 1.9 percentage points below the global average. Casino and puzzle games follow closely behind, representing 13.9% and 11.3% of advertisers respectively.
Mobile games by genre
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Source: SocialPeta
Strategy games lead the way in video creative, while mini-games grab attention with IP-based elements.
In Southeast Asia, mobile game ads prioritize video ads, which make up 65.8% of all ads – above the global average of 54.8%, but down from 71.3% last year. Notably, almost 70% of these videos are longer than 30 seconds, suggesting that longer ads are more effective in the region.
Strategy games top the list, with 76.5% of their ads in video format, while casino games rely more heavily on image ads, accounting for 44.3%. Most video ads last between 30 and 60 seconds, which amounts to 59.1% of the total. For image ads, 67% are in landscape format, while portrait and square images make up 13.5% and 7.1% respectively. This data highlights the variety of creative types and advertising strategies used across different gaming genres in Southeast Asia.
Mobile gaming ads by type
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Source: SocialPeta
Southeast Asia has emerged as a key battleground for mini-game expansion overseas, following regions such as Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. Numerous classic domestic marketing strategies have been successfully adapted to this region, showcasing a wide range of creative formats.
Popular creatives
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Source: SocialPeta
- Leveraging IP for growth: Advertisers use popular IP personas to attract players’ attention, increasing awareness and conversion rates for their ads.
- AI filters: AI filter technology transforms real people into anime characters, improving visual appeal, interactivity and personalization in game promotions.
- Side gameplay + voiceover: Highlighting side gameplay features with voiceovers makes the advertising content more engaging and immersive, increasing player participation.
- KOL commentary + gameplay footage: Working with Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) to provide commentary alongside gameplay footage adds dynamism to advertising, leveraging the KOL’s influence to spark their fanbase’s interest in the game.
These creative formats have effectively helped mini games establish a strong presence in the Southeast Asian market, using various marketing strategies to capture the attention of local players.
The report also provides an in-depth analysis of three recently popular mobile gaming products in the Southeast Asian market: Ghost story: love destination (the overseas version of 倩女幽魂), the popular mini-game Legend of Mushroom: Rush – SEAand the popular pet-themed MMO Draconia saga. The marketing strategies used by these games in Southeast Asia provide valuable insights for industry professionals.
Ghost story: love destination
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Source: SocialPeta
The 24-page report includes data up to August 2024. Through in-depth analysis of Southeast Asian mobile game marketing data, in addition to comparisons with past international marketing trends, SocialPeta has compiled this report to support your journey into global markets and help you in your expansion efforts.
Download the full report to stay ahead in the ever-evolving mobile gaming landscape.
