Vietnamese-developed mobile games accumulated 4.9 billion downloads, ranking the country #2 globally and equating to roughly 9,300 downloads per minute, according to the Vietnam Mobile Game Industry Report 2025 released by GameGeek.

The report, titled "Vietnamese Games Go Global: From Local Market to Global Production Engine," draws on data from the Authority of Broadcasting and Electronic Information (ABEI) under Vietnam's Ministry of Information and Communications, with strategic partners VNGGames and Airwallex, and analytics providers Sensor Tower and AppsFlyer.

In 2025, Vietnamese studios launched 27,388 new games, a 13% year-over-year increase. GameGeek framed the growth as occurring during a global market consolidation phase. Combined output from over 210 active studios drove an estimated 83% year-over-year rise in in-app purchase revenue.

What does the download decline actually signal?

Total downloads from Vietnamese publishers fell between 2% (AppsFlyer) and 9% (Sensor Tower) in 2025. GameGeek reads the contraction as a strategic pivot rather than a downturn, with studios exiting hyper-casual in favor of genres with deeper engagement.

Three categories now dominate the product mix:

• Simulation
• Puzzle
• Arcade

Together they account for 66% of total downloads for Vietnamese-developed games. Long lifecycle products retain audiences at scale: 78% of new users engaged with titles released before 2025.

How are studios monetizing now?

73% of Vietnamese studios have abandoned purely ad-funded models in favor of IAP or hybrid structures. The shift targets higher ARPU and longer customer lifetime value, both of which have lagged hyper-casual benchmarks historically.

Concentration of talent remains high:

• 91% of studios operate in Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City
• 38% of surveyed studios are 2–5 years old (founded 2020–2023)
• 36% are 5–10 years old
• Very few have operated beyond a decade

GameGeek CEO Vu Minh Hanh said: "Vietnam's gaming industry is entering a critical growth phase, driven by strong internal capabilities in talent, production, and global distribution. With increasing scale, growth speed, and product quality, Vietnam is rapidly emerging as one of the world's leading mobile game production hubs."

What is drawing investor capital?

Two recent transactions illustrate where the market sits in the capital cycle:

• Panthera Global raised $1.5 million to expand mobile publishing internationally.
• NCSoft paid approximately $103.8 million for 67% of Indygo Group (parent of Lihuhu), implying a valuation near $155 million.

GameGeek projects stronger deal flow over the next 1–2 years and potential unicorn-scale exits in the medium term, contingent on product quality continuing to scale alongside headcount.

What's next?

GameGeek is using the report to anchor Vietnam Game Connect 2026, the country's largest B2B gaming event. Organizers expect hundreds of studios to attend, with international publishers and platform partners using the gathering to identify co-development and publishing pipelines.

The next data point worth tracking will be whether 2026 IAP growth holds above the 83% 2025 estimate, or whether further genre consolidation toward Simulation, Puzzle, and Arcade compresses publisher margins. Studio formation rates out of the 2020–2023 cohort will also indicate how quickly the 38% two-to-five-year-old bracket matures into the leadership ranks the report identifies as scarce.