New research from Niko Partners reports that 60 per cent of gamers in South East Asia are "strongly drawn to esports".

The first 'Greater Southeast Asia Gamer Segmentation study' says that the majority of this audience engage with esports in some capacity or another. 42 per cent are what Niko calls "competitive arena gamers."

This means they love esports and spend the most on this hobby out of any other demographic - $15.80 per month, on PC titles, with mobile spend coming in at $10.10.

“Gamers in Greater Southeast Asia (GSEA) are primarily motivated by competition, completion, community and challenge, according to our findings in this report. These are also the most essential values of esports – which explains why GSEA is the fastest growing region for esports," Niko managing partner Lisa Cosmas Hanson (pictured) said.

“A surprising outcome of this study is how different the GSEA gamers are from western gamers. However, they have much in common with Chinese gamers, per a similar segmentation analysis we did in China.”

The co-founder of Quantic Foundry Nick Yee, who worked with Niko to produce this report, added: “Pairing gaming motivations with gaming and digital consumption preferences provides a unique lens into what different kinds of gamers want and how to reach them. Fine-tuning player targeting is all the more important in the increasingly competitive gaming landscape.”