Vietnam wants its games industry to hit a big round number. The industry currently generates around US$650 million in revenue, and that could reach US$1 billion by 2030, according to Le Quang Tu Do, Director of the Authority of Broadcasting, Television and Electronic Information, as reported by VietNamNet. The same report notes that in November 2025 the government issued a national strategy for developing cultural industries that names gaming as one of six key sectors.
In revenue terms, that is still a mid-sized market. Look at downloads, though, and Vietnam suddenly looks like a heavyweight.
The download powerhouse
Vietnam holds the world's top position for game downloads on Google Play, with 6.1 billion downloads in 2024, or more than 11,600 every minute, VietNamNet reported. The momentum carried into 2025: Vietnamese apps and games recorded 8.5 billion Google Play downloads that year, up 39% on 2024, according to VietNamNet.
A lot of that comes from studios building mobile games for players around the world, not just at home. In its Southeast Asia mobile gaming report, Sensor Tower noted that three Vietnamese publishers were among the top 15 globally by downloads. An industry overview from Vietnam Briefing puts the local scene at approximately 35,000 game developers and 400 active game companies.
Big publishers have noticed. In December 2025, NCSOFT bought a 67% stake in Indygo Group for US$103.8 million, and Indygo is the parent company of Vietnam-based casual and puzzle studio Lihuhu, PocketGamer.biz reported.
More players on the way
Research firm Niko Partners expects Vietnam, together with India and Indonesia, to see the fastest growth in players over its forecast period, reaching 68 million players by 2030. For publishers, that means a young audience that is still growing, which is exactly the kind of market where getting in early matters.
New rules for online games
Regulation is reshaping the market too. Vietnam's Decree 147/2024 on internet services and online information came into effect on 25 December 2024, as explained by law firm Tilleke & Gibbins. Under the decree, offshore companies providing online games to users in Vietnam must set up a local enterprise, and online games that resemble casino prize games or use images of playing cards are banned.
So for foreign publishers, Vietnam is no longer a "just launch it on the store" market. Doing business there now takes a local presence and licensing work.
Esports keeps Vietnam on the map
Vietnam hosted the 31st SEA Games in May 2022, and those Games included esports as a medal event, as Niko Partners pointed out at the time. In League of Legends, Vietnamese team Secret Whales qualified for the 2025 World Championship (Wikipedia). And Riot Games picked Ho Chi Minh City to host the VCT Pacific Stage 1 Finals in May 2026, the first tier-one VCT Pacific event held in Southeast Asia, VALO2ASIA reported.
Why it matters for SEA gamers
For players in Malaysia and around the region, Vietnam's rise is less about one big blockbuster and more about volume. Its studios already rank among the world's busiest makers of the mobile games people download, bigger publishers are buying in, and new rules are changing who can run online games there. If the US$1 billion target lands, expect to hear a lot more from Vietnamese studios.