According to the latest report jointly released by Google, Temasek and Bain & Company, the digital economy in Southeast Asia has been developing against the trend of the new crown pneumonia epidemic. The digital economy market in Southeast Asia will reach US$174 billion in 2021 and is expected to exceed US$360 billion in 2025; it is expected to reach US$1 trillion by 2030.
In addition, the IMF has predicted that Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia will have higher GDP growth rates than most countries in the world between 2022 and 2024. In this sense, let’s take a quick look at the market, games, game publishers, and payment methods in the Philippines to get a handle on the trends in the mobile gaming industry.
Philippines’ Market Status quo Overview
The Philippines has a land area of about 290,000 square kilometers, with a GDP of about US$330.9 billion in 2019 and a per capita GDP of about US$3,000. The total population is about 106 million, second only to Indonesia’s population of more than 250 million, and the population has been rising. For the game market, more new players will surely emerge in the next few decades. However, due to the very large income gap in the Philippines, it is still internationally recognized as a low- and middle-income country.
60% of the population in the Philippines are Internet users, and the Philippines is also one of the youngest countries, with more than 60% of the population aged 16 and over. Among Internet users, nearly 90% are between the ages of 18 and 24. The smartphone penetration rate is about 45%, and the national English penetration rate reaches 92.3%. The most popular gaming platform in the Philippines is mobile. With 74% playing games on mobile phones, playing games on PC and consoles is also popular in the gaming community. Of course, as in other countries, people prefer free download games, and the proportion is very large.
Mobile Games in the Philippines
Mobile Legends, a free-to-play multiplayer MOBA game developed by NetEase, topped the mobile game downloads and bestseller charts in the Philippines. The game draws on titles like League of Legends, which launched in Southeast Asia in September 2016.
As an online card battle game developed by Sky Mavis, Axie Infinity allows players to compete against each other by manipulating a little monster named Axie and unlocking card skills. There are two Ethereum based tokens, AXS (Axie Infinity) and SLP (Small Love Potion). Currently, the game is very popular in developing countries such as the Philippines, India, Venezuela, Brazil, and Indonesia, where players can earn handsome profits from the game.
Genshin Impact is an RPG where players choose and control four interchangeable characters. While exploring the open world and dungeons, players team up with friends, battle, and strategize to defeat a variety of enemies. MMO, RPG and strategy mobile games are also popular in the Philippines mobile gaming market.
Mobile games adapted from popular Korean PC games, such as Dragon Nest M and Lineage 2: Revolution, have found a lot of players in the Philippines, and their Korean art style and PvP gameplay are very suitable for Filipino players’ preferences. Several other MMORPGs such as War of Rings, Daybreak Origins, and Legacy of Discord have also been successful in the Philippine market. In addition, the RTS mobile game “Lords Mobile” developed by IGG is also loved by many Filipino players.
As a virtual Android system, redfinger cloud phone enables you to have another Android phone on one device. Running on cloud servers, redfinger requires almost no data, storage and battery power from your own device. With this android emulator, you can run your games freely on the cloud. In addition, with only one redfinger account, you can manage any number of cloud phones to meet your multitasking needs, such as enjoying Lineage 2: Revolution with redfinger cloud phones.
Compared with the other five countries in Southeast Asia (Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam), the maturity of the Philippine game market is relatively low. However, as the political situation in the Philippines gradually stabilizes, economic development and smartphone penetration continue to increase, the current The Philippine game market is developing rapidly. In 2020, the Philippine mobile game market has reached US$300 million.
Game Publishers in the Philippines
Out of a total of 176,291 game publishers, more than 425 Filipino publishers are on Google Play. Rocket Game Studio ranks first among the largest game publishers in the Philippines. They have 140 mobile games with over 260.39 million total downloads. Following Rocket Game Studio, Monstronauts Co., Ltd., established in 2015, developed and published “Cooking Adventures”, “Potion Punch”, “Rowan McPaddles: River Rush”, etc. They have 3 mobile games with over 17.37 million downloads in total.
“Duterte Fighting Crime 2”, “Manok Na Pula – Online”, “Train to Gensan”, “Police Vs Zombies” were developed by TATAY, and the total downloads of the 5 mobile games exceeded 16.76 million times. In addition, there are a series of game publishers such as Big Giant Games, Ranida Games, TripSoft Global, Remy Games, etc.
Frequently-used Payment Methods in the Philippines
GCASH currently has more than 30 million users, which can be used for deposits, recharges, transfers, online shopping, etc. In 2017, GCASH’s investment made it a leader in the payment field in the Philippines.
As the built-in e-wallet of Grab, a super app in Southeast Asia, GrabPay has become a mainstream e-wallet in Southeast Asia. It is widely used in the Philippines, Singapore and Malaysia and is in a continuous expansion trend, covering a wide range of users. GrabPay has rich application scenarios, covering online and offline businesses in the Philippines, especially in the taxi-hailing scene in the Philippines (Grab is the largest taxi-hailing application in the Philippines).
Founded in 2010, Dragonpay is an online bank transfer and cash payment method in the Philippines to meet the growing demand from consumers and businesses for alternative payment channels. Through Dragonpay, consumers can complete payment through online banking, bank counter, ATM transfer or any partner’s branch. Once payment is received, Dragonpay will automatically monitor account activity and send payment notifications to merchants.
