2019

Sep 2019
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 Table of Content

Introduction 2
Methodology and
3 Demography

Esports Brand
Awareness 5
Esports Playing
7 Frequency

Esports Watching
Frequency 13

23 Conclusion

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Introduction
Esports is becoming a well-known industry. Already thriving in
the global market, the ecosystem begins to build its
momentum in Indonesia. Although esports has been in the
country for quite some time, the rise of smartphone
penetration brings esports to new era.

As the ecosystem grows, it’s not only beneficial to players,

but also those behind the scene, like referees, Event
Organizer, team management, and others. It’s interesting to
find out about esports trend, what kind of game titles that
perceived with high awareness, what kind of matches that
has the highest viewers, and the most popular streaming
channels to watch esports matches.

We invite you to explore those various topics in the following

report. It also provides information about the playing
frequency and the time spent. In addition, we investigate
further on why the audience are willing to watch esports
matches.

This research should be considered as an introduction.

Hybrid will continuously provide our audiences with relevant
surveys in the esports ecosystem. Our vision is to grow
bigger and better with the ecosystem.

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Methodology and Demography
DSResearch and Hybrid.co.id use an online quantitative survey in collaboration with JakPat
Mobile Survey. The research is conducted in July 2019 nationwide with 1445 respondents,
male or female with age 16 or above, using smartphones and/or PCs, and playing and/or
watching esports for the last three months.

1. Gender 2. Age Group

49.9%

22.8%

73.2% 26.8% 21.5%

5.7%

less than 20-29 30-39 40 years old

20 years years old years old and above
old

3. SEC (Social Economic Class)

Social economy class based on monthly spending:

> Rp10 million 9.9%

Rp5-10 million 22.4%

Rp3-5 million 34.1%

Rp2-3 million 19.2%

Rp1.5-2 million 13.8%

< Rp1.5 million 0.7%

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Esports Brand Awareness

Popular esports title

78.1% 65.1% 60.2% 52.7%

49.8% 49.3% 47.8% 47.1%

41.0% 37.4% 31.8% 30.3%

27.3% 24.1% 12.1% 11.3%

9.8% 9.1% 5.7% 5.3%

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Mobile Legends perceived as the most popular esports title (78.1%) followed by PUBG Mobile
(65.1%), PUBG PC (60.2%), Free Fire (52.7%) and DOTA 2 (49.8%). Among top 5, three titles are
specifically designed for mobile, matches with smartphone penetration narration.

As powerful smartphone (suitable to play sophisticated games) are getting more affordable,
this genre’s popularity is also rising fast. On the other hand, with two PC game titles are in the
top 5, PC games won’t be going out anytime soon.

Another important note is the inclusion of console games and casual games in the list. FIFA
will always be a popular game title among local gamers, with Indonesia has produced some
FIFA 19 athletes with decorated achievements.

While Clash Royale, although listed as a casual game, has countless active users in the
country, although not as popular as MLBB or AOV. Internationally, Clash Royale has its own
competitive league and sponsors.

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Esports Playing Frequency

Time spent within last 3 months

43.6%

17.0% 13.6%
5.2% 4.9% 2.0% 2.1% 7.8% 3.9%

Every 4-6 2-3 Once 2-3 Once a 1-2 Less than Never
day times / times / a week time / month times / once / play
weeks weeks months 3 months 3 months esports

Time spent within last 3 months by gender

Category Male Female

Everyday 49.4% 27.5%

4-6 times / weeks 18.5% 12.9%

2-3 times / weeks 13.7% 13.2%

Once a week 4.1% 5.3%

2-3 times / month 3.0% 8.0%

Once a month 1.5% 3.4%

1-2 times / 3 months 1.6% 3.4%

Less than once / 3 months 4.6% 16.3%

Never play esports 2.7% 7.0%

Most of the respondents (43.6%) said they are playing esports daily. It’s applicable for both
male and female. An opportunity for esports game titles to embrace them into a competition,
either as players or audiences, to raise the engagement.

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Esports title played within last 3 months

59 .4%

3 6 .1%
29 .1%
19 .1% 17.7 %
16 .4% 15. 3 % 12 .1% 11.9% 11 .0%

Esports title played within last 3 months by gender

Title Male Female

Mobile Legends 58.2% 63.6%

PUBG Mobile 36.2% 35.7%

Free Fire 29.4% 28.3%

PUBG 18.9% 19.9%

FIFA 18.9% 13.8%

Arena of Valor (AOV) 16.7% 15.5%

Pro Evolution Soccer 17.9% 7.1%

Dota 2 11.5% 14.1%

Clash Royal 11.0% 14.8%

Point Blank 10.3% 13.1%

Mobile Legends is the most popular title played among the respondents within the last 3
months (59.4%), followed by PUBG Mobile (36.1%) and Free Fire (29.1%). The case is mostly
justified because of smartphone penetration narration.

Completing the top 5 are PUBG (PC games) and FIFA (console games).

If compared to brand awareness, one interesting fact is that PES (Pro Evolution Soccer) is on
the list of top 10 games played within the last 3 months, although they are not into the top 10
popular games. Along with FIFA, football is culturally among the most playable esports title.

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Esports title currently played

52.0% 29.7% 23.0% 12.8% 12.6%

12.0% 10.8% 8.5% 8.5% 6.6%

Esports title currently played by gender

Mobile Legends 51.0% Mobile Legends 55.4%

PUBG Mobile 30.0% PUBG Mobile 28.4%

Free Fire 22.9% Free Fire 23.3%

PUBG 13.8% PUBG 9.5%

FIFA 12.4% FIFA 13.5%

PES 13.9% PES 5.7%

AOV 10.5% AOV 11.8%

DOTA 2 8% DOTA 2 10.1%

Clash Royale 7.7% Clash Royale 11.1%

Point Blank 6.2% Point Blank 7.8%

In terms of current esports title played, the list is not that different compared to games played
in the last three months. Mobile Legends tops the list (52.0%), followed by PUBG Mobile
(29.7%) and Free Fire (23.0%). A little distinction for the top 3, PES has a higher rate than AOV.

Based on gender, both females and males prefer Mobile Legends, PUBG Mobile, and Free Fire.

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Esports playing frequency

Category

Less Than 3.20% 1.60% 4.10% 4.9% 3.70%

15 mins

15-30 mins 20.5% 16.4% 22.9% 24.5% 23.6%

31-60 mins 24.6% 28.8% 27.0% 27.0% 29.8%

1-2 hours 24.9% 22.8% 21.5% 26.0% 19.9%

2-3 hours 11.9% 13.5% 8.20% 8.0% 10.9%

More than 14.8% 16.9% 16.0% 9.20% 12.4%

3 hours

It takes mostly 31-60 minutes for respondents to play top 5 popular esports titles. For Mobile
Legends, high percentage of respondents are having 1-2 hours duration per play.

In terms of playing time, most of the respondents answered they usually play on weekdays
from 6 pm to 9 pm (34.7%) and on weekends from 9 pm to 12 am (25.7%), applicable for both
male and female.

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Reason for playing esports

Inpressive graphics
Entertainment Challenge Game Impressive gameplay
in game

65.0% 46.4% 42.8% 40.4%

The content makes

Many people play
Invited by friends me want to play Easy to be played
the game
continuously

38.8% 31.1% 29.9% 28.3%

Many people talk Would be try new

Light game capacity Unique game
about the game things

22.3% 22.1% 21.1% 20.2%

Getting influenced
Recommendation
from youtube/
by others
streamer

18.5% 15.9%

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Reason for playing esports by gender

Entertainment 64.6% Entertainment 66.4%

Game’s challenge 47.9% Game’s challenge 42.4%

Impressive gameplay 45.6% Impressive gameplay 35.4%

Inpressive graphics Inpressive graphics

in game 40.8% in game 39.4%

Many people play Many people play

the game 38.8% the game 38.8%

Invited by friends 29.2% Invited by friends 36.2%

The content makes The content makes

me want to play 30.3% me want to play 28.7%
continuously continuously

Easy to be played 29.7% Easy to be played 24.5%

Light game capacity 23.4% Light game capacity 19.1%

Unique game 22.0% Unique game 22.2%

Many people talk Many people talk

about the game 20.1% about the game 22.2%

Would be try new Would be try new

things 18.5% things 24.8%

Recommendation Recommendation
by others 15.7% by others 26.1%

Getting influenced Getting influenced

from youtube/ from youtube/
streamer 15.9% streamer 16.0%

Asking further about the reason behind playing esports, the highest answer is “entertainment”
(65%), followed by “challenge” (46.4%), and “impressive gameplay” (42.8%). Entertainment,
once again, is the most important element. While competitive is one thing, it’s how the games
are enjoyable by players and audiences.

On the other hand, YouTubers or streamers only bring influence to small percentage of
respondents (15.9%). For gender based option, apart from “entertainment” and “challenge”,
male tend to prefer for good gameplay rather than impressive graphics, while female will
appreciate more on graphics than gameplay.

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Esports Watching Frequency
We're entering the other essential part of the esports ecosystem. Spectacle is an important
element for esports, given it’s not only watchable by players, but also audiences or common
people.

Frequency of watching esports

22.3% 2 0 .6 %
1 6 .9 %
9.3% 9.3%
7 .6 % 4 .9 %
4. 5% 4 .4%

Every 4-6 2-3 Once 2-3 Once a 1-2 Less than Never
day times / times / a week time / month times / once / play
weeks weeks months 3 months 3 months esports

Frequency of watching esports by gender

Every day 24.80% Once a 4.30%

month
15.50% 4.90%

4-6 Times / 16.20% 1-2 times / 3.00%

week 13.20% 3 months 8.30%

2-3 time / 21.60% Less than per 6.90%

week 3 months
18.10% 15.80%

Once a 9.90% Never watch 4.20%

week Esports
7.50% 7.00%

2-3 times / 7.10% Male

month
9.80% Female

A total of 22.3% respondents said they watched esports everyday, 20.6% watched 2-3 times a
week, and 16.9% watched it 4-6 times a week. It shows the audience's enthusiasm on enjoying
esports by watching, not just by playing.

Gender wise, male respondents watch more esports title than female respondents. Top 3
respond from female respondents on watching esports games are 2-3 times a week (18.1%),
less than once within the last 3 months (15.8%), and everyday (15.5%).

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Esports title watched in the last 3 months

57 . 3%

35.2%
2 6 . 5%
23 .1%
16 . 5% 16 . 3 % 14 .1% 12 . 5% 11.6 %
9 .0%

Esports title watched in the last 3 months by gender

Title Male Female

Mobile Legends 56.6% 59.5%

PUBG Mobile 34.1% 38.8%

Free Fire 26.8% 25.4%

PUBG 20.5% 31.4%

Dota 2 16.3% 17.1%

FIFA 16.7% 15.1%

Arena of Valor (AOV) 13.9% 14.7%

Pro Evolution Soccer 13.9% 8.0%

Point Blank 11.0% 13.4%

Clash Royal 8.1% 12.0%

Three top most watched esports titles within last 3 months are Mobile Legends (57.3%), PUBG
Mobile (35.2%), and Free Fire (26.5%).

The next three titles are PC and console games: PUBG (23.1%), Dota 2 (16.5%), and
FIFA (16.3%).

Mobile Legends and PUBG Mobile are both top most watched for both male and female.
However, for third position, female respondents prefer to watch PUBG, rather than Free Fire.

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Esports title currently watched

49.8% 29.0% 22.2%

12.8% 12.5% 11.2%

9.9% 9.5% 6.9%

6.3%

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Esports title currently watched by gender

Title Male Female

Mobile Legends 49.5% 50.8%

PUBG Mobile 28.2% 31.4%

Free Fire 22.6% 20.7%

PUBG 15.4% 25.4%

Dota 2 13.0% 11.0%

FIFA 11.1% 11.7%

Arena of Valor (AOV) 9.4% 11.7%

Pro Evolution Soccer 10.7% 5.7%

Point Blank 7.1% 6.4%

Clash Royal 6.0% 7.4%

The list is pretty much the same for both esport title that currently watched or watched within
the last three months. Mobile Legends, PUBG Mobile, Free Fire, and PUBG top the table.
However, FIFA beats Dota 2 for current watch.

Specifically, PUBG, FIFA, PES, and Point Black are the current most watched for PC and
console games.

A point that needs to be highlighted is that other popular titles, like Fortnite, League of
Legends, or APEX Legends, that are well played and watched in other continents, are not even
in the top 10 for Indonesian respondents.

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Time duration for watching esports

Category

Less Than 9.9% 8.6% 6.5% 7.7% 7.7%

15 mins

15-30 mins 35.9% 29.2% 42.9% 32.1% 36.1%

31-60 mins 29.0% 29.8% 24.0% 30.8% 25.8%

1-2 hours 18.4% 17.5% 16.0% 15.8% 20.0%

2-3 hours 5.2% 6.7% 5.5% 5.4% 5.8%

More than 5.7% 8.1% 5.8% 8.1% 4.5%

3 hours

For top 5 esports title, most of the respondents spent around 15-30 minutes and 31-60
minutes. Half an hour is considered short for watching PC games, however it’s long enough to
watch a few of mobile game matches. This number is promising, given esports ecosystem in
Indonesia is still in the growing phase.

Digging further, some respondents may spend 2-3 hours or even more than 3 hours to watch
esports games. Organizers and sponsors may need to take notes on what factors can make
esports to stay long enough to watch their favorite games.

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Reason for watching esports

There’s my favourite There’s my favourite

Entertainment Game’s challenge
team player

57.2% 43.1% 42.1% 35.8%

Impressive graphics Many people play the

Impresive gameplay Unique game
in game game

27.1% 31.1% 25.5% 24.9%

Many people Getting influenced

Recommendation Would like to try new
talk about from Youtube/
by others things
the game Streamer

22.0% 21.3% 20.2% 19.6%

The content makes

me want to play Invited by my friends Easy to be played
continuously

17.6% 16.9% 15.3%

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Reason for watching esports by gender

Entertainment 56.20% Entertainment 60.10%

There’s my favourite There’s my favourite
team 45.50% team 35.60%

There’s my favourite There’s my favourite

player 42.90% player 39.60%

Game’s challenge 35.10% Challenge game 37.90%

Impresive gameplay 28.40% Impresive gameplay 22.80%

Unique game 24.50% Unique game 29.90%

Impressive graphics Impressive graphics

in game 24.90% in game 27.50%

Many people play the Many people play the

game 23.30% game 29.90%

Recommendation Recommendation
by others 18.40% by others 32.20%

Many people talk about Many people talk about

the game 19.40% the game 27.20%

Getting influenced from Getting influenced from

Youtube/Streamer 19.50% Youtube/Streamer 22.50%

Would like to try new Would like to try new

things 17.60% things 25.80%

The content makes The content makes

me want to play me want to play
continuously 17.80% continuously 17.10%

Invited by my friends 16.10% Invited by my friends 19.50%

Easy to be played 16.00% Easy to be played 13.10%

Three factors are excelling when discussing about watching consideration of esports title.
“Entertainment” (57.2%), “favorite team” (43.1%), and “favorite players” (42.1%) are the most
popular responses.

Since Indonesians are mostly attracted to visual consumption, the shifting between analog /
TV based consumption to digital (including YouTube and other live streaming platforms) will be
the main key driver to engage with audiences. It’s supported with better internet connectivity.

Team and players favoritism, just like in other conventional sports, will be a basic foundation
for organizations to develop ecosystem, engagement, and revenue. This relation will be the
basic strategy to scale up and raising income. Not only about selling achievements, but also for
better proposition to potential sponsors.

Other factors include “challenge”, “impressive gameplay”, “uniqueness”, and “impressive

gameplay”.

Gender wise, male respondents pick more on “favorite players”, while female respondents
appeal more to “challenge”.

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Platform to watch esports

8 4.6%

24 .0 % 21. 7 %
17 . 3 % 14 . 3 % 12 .6 % 10 .1% 10 .0 %
7.8% 6.6%

In this segment, YouTube is unsurprisingly dominating as the preferred streaming platform in

Indonesia with 54.5%, followed (in the far behind) by Facebook, Nimo TV, Cube TV, and Arena
Gaming. Twitch, a hugely popular esports streaming platform, is the least popular for
Indonesian audience in the top 10.

Usually, every popular mobile games are streamed (livestream or non-live) on YouTube.
Facebook is also quite popular due to the massive effort on Facebook Gaming adoption. Event
Organizer and team management should find this information to be useful and focus on these
two platforms when streaming their contents.

In contrary, Twitch maybe is the leader of esports streaming in outside Indonesia, but since it
has no local effort and familiarity in Indonesia, it will be hard for it to have significant portion in
the country.

Nimo TV, Cube TV, and Game.ly have significant promotion for its local presence to be top 6,
while some other platforms, like Arena Gaming, Ligagame, Mooba TV, and Supreme are not
actually streaming platforms. They are more like specific web portal that broadcast their
contents through YouTube and Facebook.

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The esports ecosystem is growing, including in Indonesia. With all of its uniqueness, the
stakeholders are trying to find their way to make esports a sustainable industry. Further
exploration is required, not only to industry players, but also to sponsors, related services, and
even government.

Here are some conclusions on this survey:

1. Mobile Legends is the most popular and most played esports title (52%), followed by
PUBG Mobile (29.7%), Free Fire (23%), FIFA (12.8%), and PUBG (12.6%).

2. Mobile Legends is also the most watched esports title by respondents (49.8%).
Four other titles include PUBG Mobile (29%), Free Fire (22.2%), PUBG (17.8%),
and FIFA (12.5%).

3. Although three most popular titles are in mobile platform, it doesn’t mean PC or console
games are to be excluded. Various PC and console games in the top 10 most played are
PUBG (12.6%), FIFA (12.8%), Dota 2 (8.5%).

4. PC game titles in the top 10 most watched are PUBG (17.8%), FIFA (12.5%), and Dota 2
(11.2%).

5. The most popular streaming platform to watch esports are YouTube (84.6%), Facebook
(24%), and Nimo TV (21.7%).

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