The position of Vietnamese Esports on the international map
According to Statista, Esports (e-sports) revenue in Vietnam is expected to reach 7.2 million USD in 2025 and increase to 10.4 million USD in 2029, with an impressive annual growth rate of 9.72%.
The number of people participating in e-entertainment in Vietnam currently reaches about 28.2 million people, accounting for 28.7% of the population.
The number of Esports followers in Vietnam also recorded more than 10 million people. These figures show the strong development potential of this industry in Vietnam.
Sharing at the recent Vietnam Game Festival, a representative of Riot Games emphasized that Southeast Asia is one of the regions with strong Esports development, with the potential not less than other traditional places such as the US, South Korea and Europe.
Riot also assessed that Vietnamese Esports has a strong development and creates a difference compared to other countries in the region when building and developing an eSports community: full of passion, pride and the ability to turn online love into a vibrant offline activity.
Meanwhile, according to Mr. Nguyen Tran Son, VNGGames Esports Development Manager, Vietnam has many advantages to develop this type of sport. He pointed out that Vietnam's young population, strong gaming culture, and gradually changing social awareness (appearing at large-scale sporting events such as the SEA Games, ASIAD, etc.) are a huge advantage for Esports.
In addition, Esports is changing game prejudices, creating jobs for many fields (streaming, marketing, event...), while easily promoting culture through community connection activities.
Vietnam can take advantage of Esports to develop the digital economy
In the world, Esports has helped localities generate tens of millions of USD in revenue every time they organize major tournaments. In addition, it also creates many new jobs related to content production (streamers, video editors), event organization, software development, and marketing.
In the US, the industry recorded more than 50,000 direct jobs in 2023, expected to increase by 20% in 2025. According to Forbes, the state of Georgia (USA) benefits from 500 million USD and 12,000 jobs from Esports spreading to fields such as technology, media, and tourism.
For Vietnam, Esports brings many great economic and tourism opportunities. For example, the world's major game producer Riot Games is surveying and plans to film a 9-episode TV series based on the Legend of Alliance game and the online cartoon of the same name in Cat Ba, Hai Phong at the end of 2025.
"Vietnam is one of the countries that is prioritized for travel or filming, with a large and stable audience, a Riot Games film shot in Vietnam will bring a very positive effect," said Ms. Rose Lam - Global Director of Riot Studios.
Similar to football or other traditional sports, the "export" of Esports players brings foreign currency, enhances position and creates inspiration for the younger generation. Vietnamese Esports stars are popular for their high personal skills, strong competitive spirit, good thinking, competitive salary regime...
Some teams such as TALON, Virtus.Pro competing in the field of truely Auction (TFT) have core members who are Vietnamese players. Or the RRQ team in Valorant also recruited a Vietnamese Esports star to compete...
