KOREA FOUNDATION

COLUMN

E-Sports, a National Sport in ASEAN
Written by _‌ ‌Yu Young Kuk(Author of 「Why the Vietnamese Market」)

The elevation of E-Sports to the status of national sport for many ASEAN countries began with its adoption as a demonstration game at the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta, Indonesia. Indonesia, the host country, won second place together with gaming powerhouse South Korea with one gold and one silver medal. Among the ASEAN countries, Viet Nam excelled with four bronze medals. Since then, an E-Sports category has been officially adopted at the SEA Games (South East Asian Games), an athletic competition joined by the ten ASEAN countries. Six E-Sports were added at the Games in the Philippines in 2019, and four more were added in Viet Nam in 2021. The fierce competition between international players reinforced a sense of national pride among viewers, which, in turn, helped galvanize widespread enthusasm for gaming.

Flappy Bird

Games that are popular in ASEAN are not much different from those that are popular in the international market. However, there are games that have not been officially released due to government regulations in some countries. The games adopted by the SEA Games are popular in ASEAN. PC games such as League of Legends, FIFA 4, and CrossFire are among the most favored ones, and mobile games such as League of Legends: Wild Rift,Arena of Valor, PUBG Mobile, Garena Free Fire, and Mobile Legends: Bang Bang are widely beloved.

Vietnamese game developers are among the most talented in ASEAN, and their work is boosting the country’s potential to become a powerhouse in the industry. The first Vietnamese game that became globally renowned is Flappy Bird, a 2014 smartphone game dubbed by some media outlets as “the next Angry Birds.” Within three days of release, it was downloaded in 100 countries, and the 29-year-old developer Nguyen Ha Dong soon became a millionaire. In the recently released report, “Vietnam, A Mobile Market of Opportunity,” App Annie an app analytics research firm emphasized that it is time to take notice of Viet Nam. The country is home to five of the top ten most promising and popular game publishers in the Australia, New Zealand, and South East Asia (ANZSEA) market, and in the Top Publisher Awards for 2021, the first, second, and fourth places were all Vietnamese game developers. The developer in first place, Amanotes, has over 1 billion cumulative downloads from the games released to date.