Vietnam isn’t rising, it’s already here, rewriting what the global game industry thought it knew about developers from a tier-3 market.
With more than 3,000 studios, billions of downloads, and one of the fastest growth rates in the world, Vietnam has become a powerhouse of production and product innovation. From small independent developers to big-time studios, Vietnamese teams are proving they don’t just know how to make games, they know how to win globally.
International publishers have taken notice. Some have opened offices in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi. Others have embedded local teams and are running full-scale UA operations to capitalize on the country’s creative output and momentum. They’re launching campaigns, building relationships, and laying groundwork to get closer to one of the most exciting markets in Asia.
At its core, Vietnam’s game ecosystem has been built on raw grit. Studios bootstrap their way to global charts, often without external support. It’s not uncommon to hear stories of founders selling their personal property just to fund UA. Many local studios do everything in-house, from development to monetization. That self-sufficient spirit has shaped a developer base that moves fast, learns faster, and builds with remarkable efficiency.
More impressively, they’re doing it with products that scale. Many studios, even with limited marketing knowledge or tools, have hit 5 million or more users based on product quality alone. With relatively low labor costs and world-class technical talent, Vietnam has become a magnet for global publishers, ad networks, and service providers alike.
Global growth, local mastery
According to AppMagic, Vietnam’s game industry generated approximately 315 million USD in revenue in 2024, with 214.85 million USD already logged in the first half of 2025. If the trend continues, full-year revenue is expected to exceed 430 million USD, reflecting a 36.4 percent year-over-year increase.
But this only scratches the surface.
Insights from GameGeek reveal that most Vietnamese studios monetize heavily through in-app advertising (IAA), which is estimated to account for over 70 percent of total revenue for local publishers. This monetization model, which is deeply optimized for reach and speed, explains how Vietnamese developers consistently place games on global top charts. And they’re not slowing down.
In the first half of 2025 alone, Vietnamese studios contributed 5.19 billion downloads to the global top charts, out of 13.9 billion total. That means nearly 4 out of every 10 top-downloaded games worldwide originated in Vietnam.
The talent is here. The structure Is not.
Vietnam’s game industry has scale and speed. What it still lacks is cohesion. While the government’s GameVerse initiative has been a strong public campaign, it remains focused largely on consumer engagement. The B2B side of the industry: the publishers, the platforms, the studios that build infrastructure, are still looking for something deeper, more sustained, and more strategic.
The ecosystem remains fragmented. Some studios are working at a small scale, others are just starting out, and many operate in isolation. There’s limited access to global knowledge, advanced tooling, or structured mentorship. And yet the output remains impressive. Games like Goods Sort from Falcon and Nuts and Bolts from ABI Game Studio are defining Vietnam’s presence in the global hyper-casual space, with addictive gameplay, tight optimization, and mass appeal.
Enter Vietnam Game Connect 2025: A Platform for Global Excellence
This is where Vietnam Game Connect (VGC) comes in.
Created by GameGeek, a Vietnamese community facilitator with over eight years of experience connecting studios, platforms, and experts, VGC is the country’s first B2B-focused, industry-scale event built specifically to meet the needs of Vietnam’s developer ecosystem.
VGC is open to every part of the industry, from two-person teams to large studios. The event provides direct access to best practices in product development, monetization, UA, and growth — all presented by global leaders. For the first time, experts behind global hits like Candy Crush, Color Block Jam, and BBTAN will be on-site in Hanoi to share strategies, solve problems, and help chart the path forward for Vietnamese game creators.
An Industry Gathering With No Local Precedent
Vietnam Game Connect 2025 will host over 500 attendees, including leaders from studios nationwide and 25 international sponsors exhibiting at a professionally curated showcase.
This is more than a developer conference. VGC is where investors, SaaS providers, marketing agencies, training institutions, and global publishers come to meet the future of Southeast Asia’s game market — face-to-face, in one place, at scale.
Vietnam Game Connect 2025, organized by GameGeek, will take place on July 16, 2025, from 08:15 to 20:00 at Meliá Hanoi, located at 44 Lý Thường Kiệt, Trần Hưng Đạo, Hoàn Kiếm, Hà Nội.
