According to the Vietnam Game Industry Report 2025, the country now leads the world in total downloads for these three core mobile game genres.

Data from Sensor Tower marks a significant milestone: Vietnam accounts for 10.93% of global downloads in Simulation, Puzzle and Arcade. With approximately 3.3 billion installs, it has surpassed major markets such as China (8.48%), Hong Kong (8.28%) and the US (7.20%) to claim the top global position in this segment.

This dominance is closely tied to the role of leading publishers including ABI Games Studio, Falcon Game Studio, Amanotes, iKame - Zego Studio and XGame Studio. The achievement reflects Vietnam’s strong capability in supplying digital content within the global mobile gaming value chain.

A report by GameGeek highlights a clear shift in strategy. Rather than focusing on short lifecycle hyper-casual games, Vietnamese developers are increasingly prioritizing Simulation, Puzzle and Arcade titles - genres that offer greater depth and stronger user retention.

These three categories now account for 66% of total downloads for games originating from Vietnam. Notably, 78% of new users over the past year came from titles released before 2025.

This indicates that local studios have mastered long-term operations, or live-ops, enabling them to generate stable revenue from loyal user bases instead of relying solely on constant new releases.

Next-generation Puzzle games - including subgenres such as Screw, Match Pair, Sort and Block - are emerging as a key financial growth driver, contributing 38% of total in-app purchase (IAP) revenue.

While Vietnam’s IAP revenue scale still has room to grow compared to global benchmarks, the growth rate of these newer game categories is striking, reaching 83.04%.

This surge is driven by a strategic shift, with 73% of Vietnamese studios adopting hybrid monetization models that combine in-app purchases with advertising. By optimizing average revenue per user (ARPU) in line with international standards, Vietnam is becoming increasingly attractive to foreign investors.

The rise of Vietnamese mobile games is no longer just about volume. It reflects a deeper transformation - one that signals the country’s growing maturity and ambition in the global digital economy.

Le My