Niko Knowledge Briefs focus on the latest shifts, trends, and analysis of the video game industry

JUNE 2026

The Challenge of Video Game Piracy

Game piracy remains a persistent challenge for the games industry, but its impact is more nuanced than commonly perceived. While piracy creates meaningful economic risks, most gameplay still occurs through legitimate channels, even among players who pirate games. The findings suggest that piracy is often influenced by accessibility, availability, and convenience rather than an unwillingness to spend, with many pirating players still engaging with official monetization channels. This Knowledge Brief discusses the relationship between piracy and player engagement, the potential economic implications of piracy, and the opportunities for publishers to encourage legitimate consumption through improved access and player value.

MAY 2026

Vietnam at GameVerse: Signals for Entrants

Vietnam is Southeast Asia’s second-largest gaming market by player population, according to Niko Partners’ 2026 Market Model. The country was home to 57 million gamers in 2025, and this figure is expected to grow to 68 million by 2030, placing it just behind Indonesia. Meanwhile, the domestic market generated $678 million in revenue in 2025, and is forecast to grow to $788 million by 2030. As interest in Vietnam continues to accelerate among both international and local game companies, this Knowledge Brief offers an overview of the market’s current landscape, player trends, and the key developments shaping the industry today.

APRIL 2026

The Rise of Female Gamers as the New Frontier in the Asian Games Market

Drawing from the 2026 Niko Partners’ Player Survey, this Knowledge Brief discusses around Asian female gamers by demonstrating that growth is driven by a divergence of gameplay interests rather than a convergence toward male-dominated genres. Ultimately, the analysis provides strategic recommendations for developers and publishers to leverage on these nuanced behavioral shifts through tailored, tiered-pricing monetization, and localized, community-centric marketing frameworks.

MARCH 2026

How Player Spending Decisions Evolve Across Tiers

Player spending is often treated as a simple split between spenders and non‑spenders. Niko Partners’ 2025 Player Survey data shows a more nuanced reality: players across all tiers hold both motivations and barriers, and spending reflects how they weigh these competing evaluations. This article examines how these evaluations shift across monthly spending tiers.

FEBRUARY 2026

Behind Filipino Esports Teams’ Success in World Stage Tournaments

The Philippines has emerged as one of the dominant forces in global esports, particularly in titles such as Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (MLBB) and Call of Duty: Mobile. This success is underpinned by structural advantages within the country, ranging from a large and engaged gaming population to strong government support. This Knowledge Brief further analyzes the key factors driving the growth of Filipino esports teams and highlights considerations for stakeholders interested in the Philippine gaming market.

JANUARY 2026

Esports & Streams: Driving Cross-generational Engagement in Malaysia

Malaysia’s gaming market is no longer just about players, it is about a nation of spectators. With 18.8 million gamers and $720.6 million in 2025 video game market revenue, the country has evolved into one of Southeast Asia’s most engaged and commercially viable gaming ecosystems. Discover how esports, livestreaming, and government policy are converging to drive cross-generational participation. This Knowledge Brief helps you understand how to align with local esports ecosystems, streaming platforms, and policy direction to build sustainable competitive advantage.

JANUARY 19, 2026

10 Major Trends to Watch in 2026 – Niko Partners Predictions

For over 20 years, Niko Partners has delivered trusted proprietary data, insights, and analysis, combining on-the-ground local knowledge with a global perspective. In 2026, we’re proud to continue our coverage of 13 markets across five strategic regions in Asia and MENA. While 2025 represents a period of stabilization and recovery, we believe the video games industry across Asia and MENA will resume sustainable growth in 2026. This Knowledge Brief reveals Niko Partners’ 2026 predictions, alongside key trends to monitor, our 2025 forecast review, and the accuracy of our past market models forecast.

DECEMBER 12, 2025

Social Features and Roblox Rally: The Case of Indonesia and the Philippines

Gamers in Indonesia and the Philippines prefer games with robust social features. In 2025, we witnessed how gamers in both countries utilized Roblox as the civic engagement platform by hosting virtual rallies. This knowledge brief explores how social features on Roblox enabled young gamers in Indonesia and the Philippines to create new modes of political participation and participate in virtual socialization.

DECEMBER 8, 2025

Esports Gamer Demographics and Behavior in MENA

The GCC is positioning itself as a key growth region for esports at a time when the global industry is emphasizing sustainability and ecosystem stability. Across Gulf markets, structured investment, national programs, and cross-sector partnerships are creating an environment where publishers can scale competitive ecosystems with lower operational barriers. Survey insights from Niko Partners further indicate that this top-down development is reflected at the player level, with esports fans showing strong engagement through regular gameplay and consistent online viewership. Overall, this Knowledge brief frames the GCC as an increasingly coordinated esports environment where policy support, commercial partnerships, and evolving audience behavior are aligning to establish the region as a meaningful connector between established Asian ecosystems and Western markets.

DECEMBER 1, 2025

How The GCC Became an Esports Powerhouse

The GCC region is rapidly establishing itself as a leading global esports hub, driven by a convergence of strategic factors. Strong governmental investment, combined with a young, digitally native population passionate about gaming, has positioned the region as an attractive destination for industry stakeholders. These dynamics have made the GCC a focal point for esports enthusiasts, professional players, and publishers alike. This Knowledge Brief will dive deeper into how the GCC became an esports powerhouse.

NOVEMBER 30, 2025

Korea’s Stricter Gacha Regulations Resulted in Better Trust from Gamers

South Korea’s amendment to the Game Industry Promotion Act in 2024 resulted in, among others, game companies’ mandatory requirement to clearly indicate the types of gacha items and the exact probability of obtaining each item. Since the implementation of the amendment, the Korean Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) has fined several companies for not following the requirement. Niko Partners tracked the changes from Korean gamers’ behavior regarding gacha and spending and this brief showcases how the regulatory change affects the behavior.

NOVEMBER 10, 2025

The Role of Social Features in Today’s Gaming Landscape

Social features have become a fundamental component of modern gaming experiences. While a universal trend toward social interaction is evident, its intensity and expression are not uniform, meaning they are more or less effective for certain markets and demographics. Drawing from Niko Partners’ 2025 Gamer Insights data, this analysis provides a high-level overview of the strong correlations between social feature usage – defined as player participation in in-game and community-based social systems, such as in-game chats, co-op modes, leaderboards, guilds, tournaments, and even offline meetups – and core player metrics and demographic factors. The patterns identified highlight the strategic importance of social systems and suggest potential pathways for enhancing engagement, while also underscoring that actionable strategies for specific markets will require deeper, more localized analysis.

NOVEMBER 1, 2025

What You Need to Know about India’s Video Game Market

India’s video games market is on track to surpass $1 billion in player spending and reach over 500 million gamers, making it the fastest-growing market that Niko Partners track across Asia & MENA. What’s fueling this growth, and how can you seize the lucrative opportunity? This Knowledge Brief delivers actionable insights on entering India’s gaming market and explains why now is the perfect time to make your move.

SEPTEMBER 26, 2025

Leapfrogging the Old Guard: How Southeast Asia’s Third-Party App Market Took Off – Niko Knowledge Brief gamescom asia x Thailand Game Show 2025 Edition

Southeast Asia is without doubt a mobile-first market. Preference for this platform has also accelerated the rise of mobile-first services from digital wallets to third-party app stores. The latter have gained traction across the region in recent years, with usage and adoption continuing to climb. This Knowledge Brief explores the dynamics of third-party app stores in Southeast Asia, along with recent regulatory developments in the space.

SEPTEMBER 9, 2025

​​TikTok’s Influence in Southeast Asian Gaming Industry

Social media has become mainstream for gaming updates, recent trends show that more niche platforms are gaining traction. Short videos have emerged as the second most preferred source of gaming information. Niko Partners observes that Short video platforms have become a space where users share trends, including gaming-related content. In this Knowledge Brief, Niko Partners focuses specifically on how TikTok, as part of the short video ecosystem, is influencing the gaming industry.

SEPTEMBER 1, 2025

The Next Chapter in Chinese Premium Gaming: Successors to Black Myth: Wukong

A new wave of AAA titles is emerging from Chinese studios, powered by a domestic market large enough to rival the West. This Knowledge Brief delves into how China’s homegrown demand is rewriting the global playbook, what your company needs to know to stay ahead, what actionable insights international developers can apply to capture Chinese gamers’ attention—and spending power.

AUGUST 27, 2025

Unpacking Japan’s Languishing Esports Scene

This Knowledge Brief breaks down the reasons behind Japan’s long-struggling esports industry using Niko’s latest 2025 survey data. It examines the reasons behind Japanese gamers’ low interest in esports, analyzing both their engagement with the field directly, such as tournament viewership and attendance data, as well as their engagement with esports titles – both some of the lowest among the markets Niko covers. It concludes with a reflection on the scene’s potential for growth going forward and the ongoing challenges it faces.

JUNE 23, 2025

Gaming for All: The Importance of Accessibility

Over the past 10 years, gaming has undergone a seismic change in how games are developed, produced, and played and through it all one issue has quietly risen to a level of importance among gamers that has largely flown beneath the radar and that is accessibility features in games. This report will shine a light on the importance of accessibility and gaming.

JUNE 8, 2025

How Income and Geography Impact Gamer Spending in India

This Knowledge Brief explores the relationship between income, geographic location, and gamer preferences in India, while attempting to provide some starting recommendations for companies looking to segment audiences in this market.

MAY 26, 2025

The Generative AI Split in Asia

Generative AI (hereafter GenAI) is rapidly transforming society, with the games industry being no exception. This analysis, drawing on Niko’s 2025 Game Survey data, indicates that overall awareness in GenAI among gamers is high, with few respondents unaware of the technology’s uses in gaming. Despite its growth, GenAI’s adoption and perception vary significantly across Asian markets. This report evaluates awareness, interest, and key use cases of GenAI in gaming, with a focus on regional disparities.

MAY 11, 2025

Digital Decompression: Why Many Asians Are Turning to Video Games

With mental illness on the rise since the advent of Covid-19, more and more people are turning to gaming as a means of stress relief and decompression. This report delves into the numbers behind gaming and stress relief and offers insights into what is growing and increasingly important demographic of gamers.

APRIL 28, 2025

Off the Field and Into the Home: The Rise of Sports Games in MENA

Football (Soccer) has long been a global powerhouse on the field, but off the field Football has driven the sports genre to quietly become the most popular genre in MENA. This report looks at growth in Sports gaming in MENA and how it affects the larger gaming ecosystem.

APRIL 21, 2025

The Aging of the Asian Gamer

Niko Gamers and Insights Data, which samples gamers between 15-64 years old, shows that gamers are trending older at a faster rate than demographics would dictate. With this increasing average age, there is a shift in gamer preferences and how gamers engage with games. This report will help understand how markets in Asia are trending and what those trends could mean for the future.

March 31, 2025

Third-Party App Ecosystem: A Market of Growing Importance

Third-party app stores have been making headway in the marketplace over the past couple of years, especially in Southeast Asia where adoption and usage has been steadily on the rise. This report looks at third party app store usage through the lens of demographics, consumer preferences, and gamer behavior, to help make sense of why third-party app store usage is booming and how mobile game publishers can take advantage of this momentum.

March 17, 2025

How Income Shapes PC Gamers in India

India’s PC gaming ecosystem is expanding rapidly, with key drivers including age-income relationships and the types of games played. This is a market whose growth will likely mirror that of the country’s economy and thus should be paid careful attention to. This Knowledge Brief explores these key drivers.

March 3, 2025

Understanding Gamer Demographics: Engaged Gamers in Asia

User engagement is pivotal to the success of a game. This report will outline the importance of engaged gamers in the region, delve into the demographics of highly engaged gamers, and help companies begin to develop strategies for new or existing games that target this group of ever expanding importance.

February 17, 2025

Exploring Southeast Asia’s Games Regulations: What do Gamers Find Important?

This Knowledge Brief will examine the level of awareness among gamers of Southeast Asian gaming regulations, before taking a deeper look at the perceived importance of these regulations among the gaming population, and the potential ramifications this brings for developers and publishers in the region. Throughout, we provide actionable takeaways and recommendations for games companies wishing to expand into the region, conveniently broken down to provide country-level insights.

February 3, 2025

The Hidden Cost of Cheating

Cheating is becoming an increasingly pervasive problem in Asia and with it, there is a hidden cost associated with cheating as well. More importantly, cheating is going to effect those that companies care about the most, the whales of the game industry. This Knowledge Brief looks to explore how cheating affects whale behavior and estimate what is the hidden cost of cheating that developers and publishers pay.

DECEMBER 9, 2024

The Rise of China Mini Games

China’s mini game market is rapidly growing, driven by 650 million mobile gamers seeking accessible, freemium games with diverse genres. Integrated into platforms like WeChat, mini games offer simple gameplay mechanics and competitive elements that resonate with players. This brief explores the rise of mini games, their appeal to players, benefits for developers, and strategies to succeed in this market.

NOVEMBER 25, 2024

Optimal Channels for Promoting New Games: Preferred Social Media & Messaging Platforms

Social media is an important medium in Asia, not only among the general population, but the gaming community as well. Understanding then the importance of social media as a medium for marketing and community building is an important tool that must be utilized to optimize success in the region. This report aims to focus on two main themes: the importance of community building and the most important social media and messaging platforms by country.

NOVEMBER 18, 2024

Able and Willing to Spend: The Increasing Importance of Female Gamers to India’s Video Games Market

In a short period of time, female gamers in India have become a very important demographic in the gaming scene and they are increasingly becoming a demographic that must be considered in a serious way. The purpose of this Knowledge Brief is to delve deeper into the rise of the female gamer in India, why they are so important, and what companies need to know.

SEPTEMBER 30, 2024

Optimal Channels for Promoting New Games – A Regional Breakdown

This is the second in a three-part series exploring the optimal channels that game publishers should leverage to promote new games in Asia.

SEPTEMBER 23, 2024

The Wukong Effect:  Paving the Way for China’s Premium Gaming Future

The success of Black Myth: Wukong, a title by a relatively unknown game developer that set multiple global video game records, has captured the attention of the gaming world. Can other gaming companies replicate this success?

SEPTEMBER 18, 2024

Leveraging Streaming to Engage Gen Z Gamers

Game developers and publishers need the critical market data and insights in this Knowledge Brief that explores how Gen Z gamers are increasingly dominating the digital landscape, essential for companies mapping out their strategies in Asia and MENA.

AUGUST 19, 2024

Multiplatform Gamers:  How Platform Preferences are Shaping the East Asian Games Market

This Knowledge Brief is an essential look into multi-platform gaming in East Asia is on the rise and how it is changing how gamers in East Asia engage with games.

AUGUST 5, 2024

Optimal Channels for Promoting New Games

A major consideration for games publishers is how best to promote their titles amidst the attention economy of gaming. This Knowledge Brief breaks down how gamers find information about new titles and the facets of each medium.

JULY 25, 2024

Blockchain Gaming Investment Amid South Korea’s Regulatory Hurdles

Using our proprietary data, this Knowledge Brief focuses on understanding the growing blockchain gaming market within Asia by looking first at South Korea.

JULY 12, 2024

More Payers, Lower Value: India’s Real Money Gaming Doldrums

Investment in India’s Real Money Gaming (RMG) platforms has dried up since the government imposed a significant tax on gross deposits collected from customers. In this Knowledge Brief we explore the effects of this decline on traditional game monetization, player spending, and increased market consolidation in India.

JUNE 3, 2024

The Decline of China’s Internet Cafes: Trends Before and After COVID-19

COVID-19 brought a significant halt to the internet cafe industry in China. However, the pandemic did not singularly cause the decline of internet cafes in China; rather, it accelerated a trend that was already underway.

MAY 13, 2024

Unlocking Revenue through Console Monetization

Based on proprietary survey data, we explore the distribution of console, PC, and mobile gamers across Asia and Southeast Asia, giving valuable insight for companies that sell into these markets.

April 22, 2024

Exploring the VR Market in Asia

VR is consistently a laggard in terms of importance in the gaming industry in Asia. Despite generating substantial interest, VR has failed to convert that interest into gamers. This report delves deeper into the subject to try and understand why VR is not as successful as it could be and what, if anything, gaming companies can do to succeed

April 8, 2024

Does the VR Hype Match the Reality?

VR, as a technology, consistently generates a lot of interest among gamers, yet still remains a small fraction of the overall gaming market. This report looks to understand what the VR market looks like in Asia today in the markets that Niko covers.

MARCH 25, 2024

Comparative Analysis of Top 10% PC and Mobile Spenders in Southeast Asia

Driving deep into our proprietary data, we analyze and provide insights into regional gamer spending patterns across Southeast Asia – critical information for game publishers competing in these markets.

MARCH 11, 2024

The Impact of Parental Controls on the Gaming Experience for Japan Youth Gamers

Although most Japanese gamers agree that gaming addiction is a problem, parental controls are not widely used. Game developers and publishers need this valuable data to guide their implementation and promotion of parental controls.

FEBRUARY 26, 2024

The Influence of Twitch on South Korean Streaming

With Twitch officially shutting down in Korea this week, this Knowledge Brief aims to take a look at the true effect that influencers may have on gamers, if any, and whether there is value in an influencer-based approach to the market.

FEBRUARY 12, 2024

Palworld in China: What China Streaming Tells Us About the Future of the Game

While Palworld has been a global success by any measure, streamers in China may be telling us a different story about the potential longevity of the game, especially as it comes to Asia. This Knowledge Brief dives into data taken from our Games & Streaming Tracker to look for trends and comparable games for Palworld to estimate the long-term potential of the game.

JANUARY 29, 2024

Top PC Games by Player Base and Spending in Southeast Asia

This Knowledge Brief concludes a series of research over the past several months that has looked into the spending habits of PC gamers across Southeast countries. In this final installment, we will look at the top PC games by country as well as average expenditures per player to get a better understanding of the PC landscape, what games PC gamers typically prefer, and how much they typically spend on a monthly basis

JANUARY 21, 2024

Top Choice of Office Location for Game Publishers in SEA

Based on Niko Partners survey data of gamers, we disclose the most preferred locations for video game publishers in Southeast Asia, as well as outlining the opportunities this presents for international game publishers.

JANUARY 1, 2024

The Effects of the Chinese Regulatory Environment

Let’s look back at previous China regulations on gaming over the past couple of years to see what effects those regulations have had on the market to help estimate what, if any, future ramifications additional regulations may have.