The game industry in Indonesia is promising. Not only as entertainment, games are now seen as one of the creative economy (ekraf) sectors that has great potential to drive the growth of the national digital economy.

Citing the report The States of Indonesia's Game Industry White Paper released by game developer Agate International, Indonesia is one of the fastest growing game markets in the world. This is driven by a large population and widespread mobile phone penetration.

By 2024, the research says, the potential market value of Indonesia's game industry is estimated to reach USD 3.66 billion. In terms of device type, the market value of mobile games - games installed on portable devices - reached USD 316.8 million.

The market value of console games is estimated at USD 128.7 million. Meanwhile, the downloaded games market value is estimated at USD 176.7 million.

With 3.37 billion game downloads by 2022 and a transaction value of USD 2 billion, Indonesia is now the third largest globally. However, this market is dominated by foreign game developers, leaving only 0.5% of the market for local game developers.

Still from the research, Indonesian gamers prefer free-to-play games. However, they are willing to spend money if the game provides value.

From the report, mobile game users in Indonesia have spent around Rp 5.6 trillion on in-app purchases, an increase of 15.6% compared to 2022. On average, each gamer spent Rp 91,362 per game.

The e-commerce value-added tax (VAT) collected from cross-border transactions collected IDR 16.9 trillion - accumulated until 2023, and increased to IDR 26.12 trillion as of January 2025, showing that the digital taxation infrastructure is quite effective.

Agate Co-founder and CEO Shieny Aprilia said the report provides a comprehensive overview of Indonesia's game ecosystem, as a strategic guide for those who want to understand more about the country's industry.

"As the largest game development company with qualified resources and capacity, Agate launched The State of Indonesia's Game Industry White Paper with the aim of providing guidance for parties interested in exploring the Indonesian game industry," he said.

This potential can be utilized for Indonesia to become a growing target market for the global gaming industry, so that Indonesia can reap economic benefits from it.

Shieny and Agate see the government's role in facilitating collaboration between industry players, academics, and the government itself as an important step in encouraging sustainable growth in the local game sector.

"With supportive regulations, we are optimistic that local developers can innovate more easily, improve the capabilities and quality of games, and compete in the global market," Shieny said.

Head of the Digital Ecosystem Agency of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) Firlie Ganinduto added, globally, the value of the game market reached USD 187.7 billion in 2024 yesterday and will be expected to increase again this year. This means that the opportunity to export digital content, in this case games, is very large and real for Indonesia.

"With a large domestic demand, open digital export opportunities, and an available policy umbrella, games are very feasible to become a leading sub-sector of ecraf, as long as there is proper intervention in talent, financing, and regulatory enablers," said Firlie when contacted by Suar.id, Sunday (28/9/2025).

The game industry in terms of macro contribution and foreign exchange has also added value of Rp 1,414 trillion in 2023, as well as an increasing export target or realization in 2024.

"However, in a domestic market of around Rp 30 trillion per year, the portion enjoyed by local developers is only ± 2.5%. This means that strengthening capabilities and increasing local capture is still a common agenda so that the economic benefits stay more in the country," explained Firlie.

Firlie explained that her party is currently focusing on several things to help develop the Indonesian game industry such as facilitating regular dialog between the industry and the government, building talent strengthening, and opening business networks and investment to enter Indonesian game developers.

"This approach maintains Kadin's position as a constructive liaison, which helps the government achieve digital economic development goals, while ensuring the interests and competitiveness of the private sector are represented," he said.

The government on the one hand has also prepared a number of program strategies to accelerate the game industry. One of the programs listed in the presidential regulation is the development of human resources for the national game industry by creating human resource training and mentoring. The target is 3,000 participants to create 100 new national game prototypes each year.

Nailul Huda, Director of Digital Economy at the Center of Economic and Law Studies (Celios), also sees Indonesia as a potential market for developing games or even becoming a global market share.

"Unfortunately, this potential is still enjoyed by outside game developers or publishers . Business players in the local game industry have not broken down optimally. As if inferior to the development of games from outside which is very expansive," he said when contacted by Suar.id, Sunday (9/28/2025).

The role of the community

The presence of gamers and communities plays an important role in helping the development of games in the local industry. In fact, many players have formed e-sport teams to participate in various championships or even just play together.

"The sustainability of the game will be guaranteed as long as this community keeps running. There is even a fanbase for e-sport clubs . Now forming this community is the obstacle to our local games losing the competition," continued Huda.

The online game industry has also been eroded by global developers focusing on developing games without building a strong ecosystem.

Therefore, Huda believes that the challenge in utilizing the potential of the game industry in Indonesia is to create a strong ecosystem. One way to build an ecosystem, according to him, is the presence of a community of gamers that emerges from "below".

"This community ecosystem arises from below. The soccer game community, yes they emerged from PS rentals. Online games also emerge from the lowest layer. If there is no community movement like that, I think it is difficult to get jumbo funding," he concluded.

Collaboration is needed between parties ranging from communities, business actors, associations, academics, to the government in creating a strong and healthy game ecosystem in Indonesia. Through solid collaboration, the game ecosystem can develop more rapidly in Indonesia so as to bring it to have competitiveness in the international arena.