81% of approved video games in Vietnam have Chinese origins

The game industry has been able to organize major events and increase its number of personnel, but issues remain, the authority said at a conference by the Ministry of Information and Communications.

Among the issues was the fact that the high rate of foreign games approved for distribution in Vietnam. Domestically developed games only account for 14%, while Chinese ones account for 81%, according to statistics.

"Vietnamese gaming companies are usually distributors instead of developers," said Nguyen Thi Thanh Huyen, vice head of the Authority. Copyright infringement issues are also frequent, she added.

Authorities have stopped 667 fanpages that advertise gambling games on Facebook, as well as dealing with over 5,300 domain names that had to do with gambling. Over 600 unapproved and gambling games on online application stores have been busted, with Apple removing 90 games and Google removing 294 games per Vietnam's request.

The gaming industry in Vietnam is booming however. The number of workers in the industry this year reached around 4,100 people, a 31% increase from 2023. However, the industry's revenue this year is only at around VND12.5 trillion ($492.65 million), a slight drop from last year's VND12.552 trillion.