The Data-Driven Myth and the Deceptive Futurity of “the World’s Fastest Growing Games Region”: Selling the Southeast Asian Games Market via Game Analytics

Abstract

This article aims to illuminate how game analytics have discursively shaped the mainstream perception of Southeast Asia as a regional games market through a qualitative analysis of the data and discourses in three market reports by Newzoo, an influential game analytics company that played a pivotal role in pioneering market research about the region. By reconceiving the futurity of Southeast Asia in terms of capitalist temporality, these reports envision the region as a games market of perpetual capitalist growth through data-led approaches. Despite its limitations, the compelling conception of Southeast Asia as “the world’s fastest growing games market” has become a powerful myth that exerts profound influence on how the public conceive the region as a gaming space.