In Asia and beyond, mobile gaming is on the rise — and esports organizations are starting to take notice | International Association of Digital Marketing Professionals (IADMP)

By Alexander Lee

Though the mobile gaming market is dominated by casual players, competitive mobile gaming is slowly growing into a significant facet of the space. To reach those players, large game developers such as Riot Games are dipping their toes into mobile esports through adaptations such as Wild Rift, and esports organizations are beginning to follow suit by adding mobile players to their rosters.

Driven by a pandemic-fueled increase in idle fingers, mobile gaming has exploded in popularity over the last two years. The mobile-game player base increased by 12% worldwide between 2019 and 2020, according to a report by market research firm IDC and digital advertising platform LoopMe, with much of this behavior projected to persist post-pandemic.

Nearly 60% of gamers in North America and Europe regularly play mobile games, but this figure pales in comparison to the 87% saturation of mobile gaming in the Southeast Asian market, according to Carlos Alimurung, CEO of prominent Southeast Asian esports media company ONE Esports. “The market is only going to get way more competitive, both in mobile gaming and mobile esports,” Alimurung said. “You have Riot Games pushing Wild Rift — not only in the region but globally. And you also have Riot already talking about taking Valorant mobile.”

Mobile esports is particularly popular in parts of Asia where more established esports titles are relatively inaccessible. “In 2018, when PUBG Mobile was launched globally, I thought that this game could be a potential esport for this region,” said MD Ekramuzzaman, a former competitive PUBG Mobile player in Bangladesh. “If you talk about Bangladesh or any South Asian country, proper esports is not a thing for us, because building a PC costs a lot of money from the perspective of a South Asian family.”

Furthermore, the mobile gaming scene audience skews younger than either the gaming or general esports audience. “People have recognized that the age for someone in America, in terms of owning their first phone, is only getting younger,” Alimurung said. “That trend is only exacerbated in Asia.” The recent growth of mobile gaming within this younger demographic was rapid enough to alarm the Chinese government, which instituted a three-hour weekly gaming limit for under-18 players on August 30.

Given the dual strength of mobile esports within both Asia and younger gamers at large, Immortals Gaming Club’s decision to sign the Korean-born Du-hoon “Hoon” Jang as its first mobile-focused player was a logical move. Jang, a YouTuber with over 400,000 subscribers, started his career playing the mobile online multiplayer battle arena (MOBA) title Mobile Legends but transitioned to League of Legends: Wild Rift when the Riot-Games-developed MOBA opened beta access in late 2020.

“We believe that that young demographic is going to recognize mobile gaming as something they’re very familiar with,” said Immortals vp of marketing Max Bass. “Knowing that Wild Rift adoption is a goal of Riot’s, we’re hoping there’s Wild Rift familiarity — we’re hoping that there’s awareness for the game, that there’s engagement for the game.” Immortals is leaning …read more

Source:: Digiday