The Success of Chinese Mobile Games in Indonesian Esports

Abstract

This article examines the impact of Chinese mobile games on the Indonesian gaming market and esports scene. The impact is evident in the widespread adoption of Chinese mobile games, the community of Chinese game developers and grassroots gamers, and government policy resulting from collaborations between Chinese game developers and the Indonesian government. The introduction of the Chinese mobile game Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (Moonton 2016), hereafter MLBB, played a crucial role in developing the Indonesian esports scene and bringing gaming into the mainstream, to the extent that the current Indonesian gaming market would not have taken its present form without MLBB. This claim is evident in MLBB competitions, which grew exponentially between 2016 and 2018 from sporadic local activities to a national circuit (Jiwandono & Purwandi, 2020). This growth provided mainstream exposure to Indonesian digital gaming culture after decades as a niche activity (Rakhmani & Darmawan, 2015). Because of this exposure, MLBB esports has attracted attention from Indonesian mainstream media since it became a national circuit (Jiwandono & Purwandi, 2020), and it maintains a strong presence among Indonesian social media users (Andreas & Arymami, 2021).