Malaysia’s lead digital economy agency, MDEC, together with SocialPeta, the world’s leading advertising and marketing platform, will be publishing a report on trends, markets, genres and customers of the game advertising market in Southeast Asia. “Southeast Asia (SEA) Game Industry Special Report: In-Game Advertising Market Insights” is a continuation from the Southeast Asia Game Industry Report 2021.

“True to our clarion call to establish Malaysia as the Heart of Digital ASEAN, the report provides a detailed analysis of mobile game launch trends and popular advertisers in Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam in 2021, and listed popular ad tricks for casual games, simulated life games (SLG) and role-playing games (RPG).”

Mohan Low, Director of Digital Creative Content, Tech Ecosystems & Globalisation, MDEC

“A trending game depends not only on its quality but also on a large number of eye-catching ad releases and creativity in the future. In order to achieve better results for their products, mobile game advertisers have increased their ads releases accordingly. From January to September 2021, SocialPeta has captured more than 10.9M Southeast Asian mobile game ads, a year-on-year increase of 263%.”

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Jiahong Wei, Business Development Manager of SocialPeta

The post-pandemic trend has recorded strong growth momentum in revenue for mobile games with increased competition in the market.

The report from MDEC and SocialPeta outlines four key trends across Southeast Asia:

1. Sharp increase in number of ads, intensified competition in releasing ads
   • Total revenue of smartphone games was US$7.9 billion, a year-on-year increase of 4.7%; the total revenue of tablet games was US$1.16 billion, 2% above its year ago level, according to NEWZOO’s statistics in the first half of 2021.
2. Impact of Apple’s IDFA policy on ad release
   • iOS 14.5 allows users to actively choose if an app can track their activity to demonstrate its respect to user privacy. Some advertising platforms predict the IDFA acquisition rate may drop from 90% to 30%, the policy disrupting ad release data de-duplication, attribution and user tracking.
   • SocialPeta’s data from January to September 2021 shows iOS mobile game advertisers in SEA fell by 8.7%, and ad numbers fell by 15.2%.
3. More frequently published ads by Chinese developers in SEA
   • Chinese developers are increasingly launching their products internationally, with their ads accounting for more than 50% in the trending leaderboard in SEA. The United States and European countries likewise saw trending game ads from these Chinese companies, especially SLGs and RPGs.
4. More heavy game developers attaching importance to media buying
   • There is more focus on media buying over relying on high game quality and relatively loyal players. PUBG Mobile saw 630 ads on average in the first half of 2021, a year-on-year increase of 31%. Games with similar trends include Genshin Impact, Roblox and Free Fire.

The collaborative research report between MDEC and SocialPeta has noted the unique opportunities for mobile games to develop during the pandemic. Coupled with geopolitical developments, evolving marketing strategies, and concerted efforts towards digitalisation, meaningful insights into the industry serve as a fundamental founding block to cultivating a robust and sustainable gaming market.

The report will be available through SocialPeta on 15 November 2021. MDEC is currently also hosting their digital content festival, Malaysia Digital Creativity Festival. The festival aims to expose consumers from Malaysia and around Southeast Asia to amazing content in animation, games and visual effects, that you can participate in through the MYDCF website.