Gaming study shows Malaysian women spend twice as much as men on games

A couple of days ago, one of the world’s leading players in digital monetization for gaming, Coda, sent us the findings of a study they commissioned, and it had some surprising stats about Malaysian mobile gamers.

For starters, 38% of Malaysians spend more than 16 hours a week gaming on their smartphones. For some perspective, a lower percentage of South Koreans (31%) spend that much time on mobile games on average, even though South Korea is widely considered a gaming mecca, and they’re huge on professional gaming.

And you’d think that most hardcore gamers are guys, and they’d be spending more on games than the ladies, but…

Young women in Malaysia spend more than 2x on mobile games compared to men

While Malaysians in general spend an average of RM121 on mobile games over three months, an interesting trend was that the average spend amongst younger females (RM127) was more than double of their male counterparts (RM54). Pretty cool, as according to Coda, this indicates a new generation of invested female gamers, and also the death of the ‘my boyfriend spends so much on games’ stereotype.

And as opposed to Western gamers who are more willing to pay for levels, modes or maps in games, gamers in the East are happy to shell out for limited-time event items, characters or pets. This is especially true for Malaysian gamers in the 18-24 age group – they simply can’t resist the allure of collectibles, items, and characters in mobile games, which might explain Mobile Legends: Bang Bang’s (MLBB) popularity in Malaysia.

The study by Coda revealed MLBB (11.7% most played) as the number one played mobile game among locals, followed PUBG Mobile (10.9%) and Call of Duty: Mobile (7.2%). On top of its tried-and-true MOBA gameplay (kind of like a simplified DotA2 or League of Legends), he game has well-designed characters and character outfits that appeal to Malaysian gamers.

Aaaaand that’s pretty much it – those were some of the most compelling Malaysian mobile gaming stats Coda sent us, and if y’all are interested in checking out the fruits of their research, click this link right here.