At the moment when the Southeast Asia Cup came to an end, on the other side of the globe in South America, the MLBB Latin America Cup (LIGALATAM2022, hereinafter referred to as "Latin America Cup") also hosted by Mu Tong ended in Lima, Peru. The Latin American Cup has only been held for two years. From the perspective of offline competition, the Latin American Cup is the first offline competition.
If the grand occasion of the Southeast Asia Asian Cup in Southeast Asia reflects MLBB's dominance in the Southeast Asian market, then the first offline trip of the Latin American Cup symbolizes the beginning of the second chapter of MLBB in the global market after Southeast Asia.
MLBB Electric has actually put the second stop in the world in Latin America. In fact, not only MLBB, but also more and more American manufacturers are paying attention to it. In terms of population, economy and potential, this market contains as much potential as the Southeast Asian market.
In addition, compared with the competitive environment in Southeast Asia, Japan, South Korea, Europe and America, the Latin American market is a new blue ocean. After MLBB's success in Southeast Asia, it regards Latin American emerging markets as the second stop of globalization.
China Mobile Games Sweep Southeast Asia
Due to cultural, geographical and other elements, Southeast Asia has always been the first stop for China's games to go out to sea. As early as the end tour era, there were many successful China games in Southeast Asia.
One of the most representative is the online version of Chivalrous Love, which is owned by Jinshan. This game has achieved more than 200,000 people online at the same time in Vietnam, becoming a "national online game" with a total population of 80 million in Vietnam. Once occupied 70% of the game market in Vietnam, the total sales will reach150,000 USD.
In the era of mobile games, mobile games in China have become the mainstream force in Southeast Asia. According to the data of SensorTower, in 20021year, MLBB ranked first in the game list of Southeast Asia with 47 million downloads, second only to FreeFire in the whole list.
Based on MLBB's popularity in Southeast Asia, its series of e-sports events have also become the hottest e-sports events in Southeast Asia, even leading the world only from the horizontal comparison of traffic.
According to the statistics of overseas live broadcast platform EsportsCharts, MLBB's related events occupied 6 seats in the single MOBA e-sports competition before the peak number of viewers in 2002 10/year.
This performance also directly helped MLBB-related events rank first in the global mobile e-sports in 20021year with a total viewing time of 386 million hours, an increase of 2.5 times compared with 2020.
Moreover, in the just-concluded 3 1 Southeast Asian Games, the maximum simultaneous online number (PCU) of MLBB-related events reached 22 1, and the total viewing time reached 1785000 hours. Both data are ranked in the TOP 1 of the e-sports event of this Southeast Asian Games, which also set a new viewing record.
National mobile games, which is the most intuitive status quo of MLBB in Southeast Asia.
Behind MLBB is the dominance of the whole China in the game in Southeast Asia. Furthermore, according to the data of SensorTower, 2021* * 48 China mobile games were shortlisted in the best-selling list in Southeast Asia, with a total revenue of about 980 million US dollars, accounting for 54.0% of the total revenue of Top 100.
China's mobile games occupy more than half of the market share in Southeast Asia, which is the truest portrayal.
Latin America: a similar but larger market to Southeast Asia.
Southeast Asian market has become the main position for games to go out to sea, but looking at the problem from another angle, this market has already become the Red Sea market with the influx of a large number of products to go out to sea, and the competition has become particularly fierce.
The future market growth will depend on the growth brought by the upgrading of the whole economy and network infrastructure in Southeast Asia, in other words, it will be closely related to the development of the whole region in Southeast Asia.
In this context, if you want to take development into your own hands, you must jump out of the comfort zone of Southeast Asia and look for another incremental market.
Japan, South Korea, North America and Europe are the main battlefields, but the value game theory holds that the Latin American market has been forgotten by many manufacturers, which has great potential and is extremely suitable for China game manufacturers.
The main reason lies in the great similarity between Latin American market and Southeast Asian market.
In the Southeast Asian market, the general price of smart phones is below $200. According to the report released by Counterpoint, in 2020, more than 67% of smartphones will be shipped below $65,438+050.
In the Latin American market, the overall situation is very similar to that of Southeast Asia, and it is also a contrapuntal report. The data shows that in 20 19, the Latin American smartphone market is still dominated by low-end models. Nearly 57% of smartphones are priced below 199 US dollars, and models below 99 US dollars account for 35% of the market.
In addition, it is worth noting that Latin America pays special attention to social attributes. According to the data of the World Bank, three Latin American countries, Mexico, Brazil and Argentina, occupy three seats in the top five global social media usage frequencies.
Social attributes are very important for "lively" Latin American gamers. Compared with some single-player games that can only entertain themselves, most Latin American gamers prefer games with social attributes that can be played with friends or strangers.
Finally, compared with Europe, America, Japan, South Korea and even China, the Latin American market and the Southeast Asian market are almost the same, that is, users are mainly composed of "mobile games".
This is related to local development. The price of PC and game console, as well as the subsequent purchase of games, is a considerable expense for local users. Therefore, mobile games based on smartphones that just need products are more popular with users.
In addition, a more prominent point is that in terms of network infrastructure and payment environment, one word is used to describe the Latin American market, which is "complex", which is very similar to Southeast Asia.
From the overall environment, Latin America is indeed very similar to the markets in Southeast Asia. In addition to this similarity, according to the data released by SensorTower, in 20021year, the total download volume of mobile games in Brazil reached 4.57 billion, ranking third in the world, second only to India and the United States.
While having the third download volume in the world, users in Brazil's mobile game market are better, accounting for nearly 60% of users aged 18-34. In addition, in terms of user income, in 202 1 year, Brazil's per capita GDP reached 8025 US dollars, while the Indian market was 2300 US dollars.
The potential of the Brazilian market alone is huge, plus Mexico, which is not inferior to Brazil at all, and Argentina and Colombia after these two giants, the Latin American market does have huge market potential.
FPS is the mainstream e-sports market in Latin America. Is there any chance for MOBA?
Based on the composition of users and the overall development background of the local market, it is extremely reasonable for MLBB, which has achieved great success in Southeast Asia, to regard Latin America as its second stop of globalization.
In fact, at present, in the Latin American market, there is also a game that originated in Southeast Asia and has achieved a nearly dominant market position in Latin America. This game is free shooting.
The data shows that FreeFire has a market share of over 60% in Latin America and 82% in Brazil, the largest market.
Among the main reasons for the success of FreeFire, local social games with low-end models and users' love for competitive games are the dominant factors, while Garena has achieved seamless connection based on the similarity between Latin American markets and Southeast Asian markets.
In addition, another major factor is that since the CS era, the Latin American market has a soft spot for real FPS games. In PGL, there are 265,438+0 Brazilian players, the most in all countries, which is very telling.
Following FreeFire, MLBB, a competitive game originating in Southeast Asia, also began to explore the Latin American market.
The biggest difference between MLBB and Fire of Freedom lies in the nature of the game. FPS pays more attention to realism, while MOBA is more strategic based on an overhead worldview.
Whether users in Latin American market will accept MOBA like users in Southeast Asia is a problem for MLBB to enter Latin America.
However, from the current China market and Southeast Asian market, we can clearly find that MOBA and FPS are parallel in these two competitive markets.
Naturally, not to mention the China market. "A MOBA" and "A Tactical Competition" occupy the top 2 bestsellers all the year round. In Southeast Asia, FreeFire and MLBB are also in the top two bestsellers all the year round.
These two markets may bring some enlightenment to the future development of Latin American market, and whether users will adapt to the competition category MOBA after getting used to FPS.
From realism to overhead, this is actually an advanced category of the game itself, and the development of China market is the same from the earliest CS 1.6 to the later Warcraft.
From this point of view, MLBB has entered the Latin American market, or the entire MOBA mobile game has a lot of room in the Latin American market dominated by FPS mobile games.
E-sports fanaticism in Latin America is another channel besides football.
From the above background, the development of MLBB in Latin American market is worth looking forward to.
In terms of data, in the user composition system of MLBB, the data of SensorTower shows that DAU from Brazil is the third largest market after Indonesia and the Philippines, which shows that this market is really worth looking forward to.
When these expectations are combined with its mature e-sports genes, it is inferred that MLBB is likely to replicate its success in Latin America and Southeast Asia.
This is because the Latin American market, like China and Southeast Asia, is hot for e-sports.
Brazil has been an important puzzle in the field of e-sports since CS. There are world-renowned e-sports players, as well as domestic famous figures such as Cristiano Ronaldo who have personally set foot in e-sports.
Last year, CUFA held a large-scale e-sports event FavelasBowl.
This competition has a history of more than ten years. In the past, football was usually the sport, but last year, a game was held with FreeFire. More than 50,000 players from more than 65,438+000 Brazilian slums signed up for the FreeFire Slum Cup.
The organizers broadcast live on the Twitch platform, and SporTV, one of Brazil's largest cable TV channels, also broadcast live the final.
Besides Brazil, Mexico, Argentina and Colombia also have great enthusiasm for e-sports. E-sports has become a popular activity for young people in Argentina.
This trend has also attracted the attention of former Argentine national team and former Manchester City club aguero. As an e-sports enthusiast, he became the KRUEsports e-sports club and entered FIFA2 1, Rocket League, Fearless Contract, CS:GO and other games. He is one of the strongest e-sports teams in South America.
MasterCard, Adidas, Burger King, Puma, Movistar, Intel and Microsoft have started to sponsor e-sports in Latin America.
Infinix, the sub-brand of Voice, the first smart phone brand in Africa, Honda, the sub-brand of Coca-Cola, Claro, the sub-brand of AméricaMóvil, TikTokGaming and the University of Peru all joined in this Latin America Cup.
Electricity is so popular in Latin America. On the one hand, as mentioned above, it benefits from the extroverted and exquisite social characteristics of Latin Americans themselves. At the same time, it is inevitable that many young people in Latin America, like young people in Southeast Asia, regard e-sports as a way to change their lives.
Before entering MPL, Escalera was a jeep driver in the Philippines, working four days a week. In addition to this job, he also worked part-time in fast food chain stores.
The appearance of MLBB changed his life. After many failures with teammates, they won the championship in a tournament with a prize pool of up to 600,000 pounds, and were acquired by ArkAngel, one of MLBB's most famous organizations. His life was changed.
A similar case is the third MLBB global championship champion team "OHMYV 33NUS". 20 18 he intended to go to Japan to become another Filipino working in Japan, but he contacted MLBB, and then he built a new house by himself through his efforts in professional e-sports.
In South America, such cases also inspire every young person born in a poor family. RaffaelSimo, 25, lives in a poor community in rural Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Due to family poverty and his wife's kidney disease, he needs regular hemodialysis. He gets up at 5 o'clock every day and works as a porter from 6 am to 6 pm to subsidize his family. However, under such high pressure, his family encouraged him to pursue his dream of e-sports and was willing to take out part of his meager savings to buy game equipment for him. Taking pains and having fun, Dexter gained some popularity in the fortress night community with his own skills.
It is this popularity that made Brazilian professional e-sports club ZeroGravity find him. They are willing to pay part of the medical expenses for Dexter's wife, and they are also willing to hire him as the signing game anchor of the club to help him improve the quality and popularity of the live broadcast. In this way, Dexter, who was born in a slum, changed his life track with e-sports.
Including the slum bowl we mentioned earlier, the relevant person in charge of the slum joint center said that the goal is to make players popular, help the best players enter professional teams and completely change their lives.
AjayJilka, the head of MLBB's Latin American e-sports, also said to the value of game theory, "Professional e-sports provides opportunities for all generations to pursue their careers and protect their sources of income."
At the same time, he does not shy away from the fact that, like traditional sports, "the top professional players in e-sports are only a small number of people at the top of the pyramid." To become top professional players, they also need talent, hard work, perseverance and solid support. "
However, in any case, there are indeed many young people who have changed their lives through e-sports. Electricity also plays the same role as football in Latin America, bringing dreams and hopes to young people.
The globalization of e-sports in China and Latin America is just another beginning.
The success of the Latin American Cup shows that the Latin American market is indeed the most suitable second stop for MLBB outside Southeast Asia.
Before the Latin American Cup, no e-sports products developed by American manufacturers could hold large-scale competitions in Latin China. Now MLBB has done this, and the Latin American Cup has become an important part of MLBB's global e-sports market.
This is an important step to spread China's position in the global e-sports industry chain to the world. By hosting the Latin American Cup, Mu Tong is gradually improving a series of mobile e-sports processes in Latin America. The person in charge of e-sports in Latin America said, "We have the opportunity to share the experience and best practices gained from the stronger and more mature e-sports market in Southeast Asia (Malaysia, Singapore, Cambodia, Philippines and Indonesia), and to localize and adapt the local market in Latin America. Whether it is short-term or long-term, it has always been our clear goal to establish a local professional and sustainable e-sports ecosystem. "
This has also played a positive role in helping Latin America quickly enter the era of mobile e-sports, which is another example of the global radiation influence of e-sports.
Of course, it must be admitted that the success of Latin American market and Southeast Asian market, as well as the success of Middle East and Eastern Europe, is actually a path success. MLBB wants to truly represent China's self-developed e-sports on a global scale, and it needs the last step, that is, in the European and American markets.
How to open up the European and American markets, this is the answer sheet to be written behind MLBB. Whether it can bring surprises and really export China's e-sports manufacturing to the world is worth our expectation.