Singaporean gamers follow FIFA, Call of Duty, League of Legends esports more than Dota 2, VALORANT, and MLBB

Singaporean gamers apparently have varied and surprising tastes when it comes to the games and esports titles they follow. A study from research firm YouGov revealed that Singaporeans follow the likes of FIFA, Call of Duty, and League of Legends (LoL) more than titles like Dota 2, VALORANT, or Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (MLBB).

According to YouGov's study, the top five games followed by Singaporean gamers include FIFA, Call of Duty, LoL, Call of Duty Mobile, and Dota 2. Of the gamers queried, 24 per cent put FIFA as the game they follow the most, 23 per cent said it was Call of Duty, 21 per cent listed Riot's LoL, and 20 per cent say Call of Duty Mobile, while only 17 per cent pegged Valve's Dota 2 as their most-followed title.

The data may seem somewhat surprising when considering that Dota 2, VALORANT, and MLBB are the three esports titles where Singaporean pros have found the most success in.

Singaporean successes in esports

In Dota 2, 33-year old veteran Daryl "iceiceice" Koh is one of the most decorated players to come out of Southeast Asia and is an icon of the region. Among his list of accolades, iceiceice boasts Top 3 and Top 4 finishes in the 2013 and 2014 iterations of The International (TI), Dota 2's annual world championship tournament.

He has also played for illustrious esports organisations like all around the world like Team DK, Vici Gaming, and EHOME in China as well as Evil Geniuses (EG) and Team Secret in North America and Europe, respectively. In his home region of Southeast Asia, iceiceice has represented the likes of Fnatic and Mineski, and last played for Bleed Esports.

In VALORANT, homegrown organisation Paper Rex has flown the flag of Singapore high in the game's biggest stage. Last year, the team dominated the Pacific region and finished second in VALORANT Champions 2023, VALORANT's annual world championship tournament.

Meanwhile, Singapore is also one of the stalwarts in MLBB's heartland in Southeast Asia, having hosted a shared MLBB Professional League (MPL) with Malaysia from 2018 to 2020 before getting its own league.

Last year, Team Flash were crowned as champions of MPL Singapore Season 6 and had a respectable 9th-12th place finish in the M5 World Championship.

Casual gamer appeal?

With that said, it is understable that FIFA and Call of Duty could take the top spots when considering their popular overall appeal, especially to casual gamers who don't follow the esports scene too much.

YouGov's data backs this up, as a majority of the Singaporean gamers that participated in the study only spend around an hour or less per week playing games. Of the gamers queried, 27 per cent said they spend less than an hour per week playing games while 30 per cent said the amount of time they spend playing games is more than an hour but less than seven hours per week.

For comparison, the more 'hardcore' gamers who spend 14 hours or more per week playing games comprised only 17 per cent of the study's participants.

Which esports teams do Singaporean gamers support?

But while most Singaporean gamers don't spend a lot of time playing games, it seems more of them enjoy watching others play instead, specifically the top pro players from Southeast Asia and around the world.

YouGov's study showed that 82 per cent of Singaporean gamers support teams from the Asia-Pacific region while 67 per cent also support global teams.

The Top 5 teams from the Asia-Pacific region supported by Singaporean gamers include South Korea's Damwon Esports (LoL), DRX (LoL and VALORANT), and Liiv SANDBOX (LoL) as well as Indonesia's EVOS Legends (MLBB) and Japan's DetonatioN FocusME (LoL and VALORANT).

Meanwhile, the Top 5 global teams supported by Singaporean gamers include the United States' Cloud9 (LoL, VALORANT, and Counter-Strike), CompLexity Gaming (Counter-Strike), EG (LoL, VALORANT, Dota 2), and Counter Logic Gaming (LoL and Counter-Strike) as well as South Korea's T1 (LoL).

According to YouGov, the results of their Singapore study show that while the country's gaming community may not be as heavily invested in specific game franchises, their "overall engagement in gaming activities, measured by time spent, is comparatively higher".

The firm also listed Singapore as a growing regional hub for gaming and esports in the Asia-Pacific region alongside countries like Indonesia and Thailand.

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