Mobile App Insights · Sui Lian Chua · April 2026
Southeast Asia Esports: Market Maturity, New Contenders, and the Rise of Tactical Shooters
Southeast Asia’s mobile esports market remains competitive, with Free Fire leading downloads and MLBB driving engagement and revenue. Honor of Kings continues to gain momentum, while Delta Force and Deadlock highlight emerging growth opportunities across platforms.
Mobile Esports in Southeast Asia: 2025 Market Snapshot
Southeast Asia’s esports market remains highly competitive, with leading titles continuing to operate at scale across downloads and revenue. Garena Free Fire leads in installs, significantly ahead of Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (MLBB), while MLBB maintains its position as the top title by engagement and revenue. Honor of Kings (HoK) stands out as the key growth driver, with strong momentum across metrics indicating rising adoption and shifting player attention.
Honor of Kings has sustained steady growth in engagement and adoption following its expansion beyond the China market.
Global Launch: Tencent launched HoK in North America, Europe, Japan and other major markets, broadening its global footprint.
First Anniversary & Major Esports:
Ongoing content updates, including new heroes and in-game rewards
Strong presence in major esports events, including the Esports World Cup Riyadh
Sustained visibility supporting continued engagement
Delta Force: Emerging Cross-Platform Contender
Delta Force has seen rapid growth following its launch across mobile and PC, establishing itself as a rising esports title.
Its esports roadmap announcement in mid-2025 supported increased engagement and visibility. Mobile engagement shows stronger spikes around key moments, while PC engagement remains more stable.
Shooter Dominance in PC Esports
The Shooter genre leads the PC market by a significant margin in both sales and volume.
Titles in this genre have nearly doubled the units sold compared with major genres such as RPG, Action, and Strategy.
Revenue has also shown a consistent upward trend year over year.
Deadlock: Early Signals of Market Interest
Deadlock is showing strong early traction despite remaining in a pre-release phase.
Wishlist growth accelerated in early 2026, indicating rising market interest.
Southeast Asia stands out as a key region, led by Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Malaysia.
