{
  "id": 15562430,
  "title": "Beyond play-to-earn: 14 Southeast Asian gaming and sports-tech startups still in the game",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/19/beyond-play-to-earn-14-southeast-asian-gaming-and-sports-tech",
  "topic": "business",
  "section": "Business",
  "published": "2026-10-19T04:20:54.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "e27",
    "slug": "e27",
    "url": "https://e27.co/beyond-play-to-earn-14-southeast-asian-gaming-and-sports-tech-startups-still-in-the-game-20261018/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Southeast Asia has long been a place where gaming obsession meets entrepreneurial spirit. In this region, some bets have paid off spectacularly while others have collapsed just as spectacularly. Despite the wild ride of the Web3 gaming boom of 2021, many of the most successful companies have never raised significant venture capital. In 2024, Sky Mavis, the Vietnamese studio behind the massively popular Axie Infinity, reported revenue of US$35.2 million - a 51% increase but still only about 3% of the US$1.3 billion it took at its peak in 2021. Meanwhile, smaller studios continue to produce games, some of which are bootstrapped and others that are profitable. Despite the region's love for football and badminton, sports-tech is still a relatively small field in Southeast Asia.",
  "summary": "Southeast Asia has spent the last decade trying to turn its obsession with play into businesses. Some bets worked spectacularly, some blew up just as spectacularly, and a surprising number of the best ones never raised much venture money at all. The Web3 gaming boom of 2021 is the cautionary tale everyone remembers: blockchain games, […] The post Beyond play-to-earn: 14 Southeast Asian gaming and…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}