With the current pandemic still ongoing, many of us are staying at home. And naturally, it’s a good time to invest in a video game.
A study by e-commerce aggregator iPrice Group has done an analysis of 1.5 million searches made on online shopping websites spanning across Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, and Hong Kong. The study compares the trends from February 17th- March 19th to March 20th-April 20th. The latter is when most countries begin practising social distancing and staying at home.
During this period of time, there is quite the demand spike for Nintendo Switch throughout Southeast Asia, up to 245% overall.
For Malaysia in particular, the rate of searches for a Switch in Malaysian online shopping platforms increased to 176% during the Movement Control Order (MCO) period. Four other countries with the highest demand for a Switch are Thailand, Singapore and the Philippines, and Hong Kong.
The high demand is why you may see sale price for Nintendo Switch has risen- from the usual RM1500-RM1700 to RM2299.
What’s more curious is that in the top 3 in-demand consoles for each country, three countries do not have an Xbox One on the list. Malaysia, Indonesia and Phillippines has so low of a demand for an Xbox One that it got beaten by searches for a PS3- a previous-gen console. Which speaks to how much presence Microsoft has in this region.
The PS4 is consistently in demand in all seven regions included in the study, and tops the charts for Vietnam and Indonesia. Vietnam saw the biggest spike in online searches for a gaming console- at 432%, followed by Singapore 241%.