Modify immediately printed its Cellular App Developments Highlight Version: Vietnam 2026, a benchmarking report drawing on aggregated, anonymized knowledge from apps tracked by the measurement firm between January 2024 and March 2026. The report covers gaming, finance, and leisure verticals throughout international, APAC, SEA, and INSEA regional comparisons, and arrives as Vietnam consolidates its place as one in all Southeast Asia’s most lively cell markets.
Vietnam ranked eleventh globally for app downloads in 2025, recording 2.88 billion installs and 127 billion hours spent in-app, in response to Modify. Smartphone penetration within the nation sits at 84%, with 4G protection reaching 99%. These infrastructure circumstances underpin a market the place three distinct verticals – gaming, finance, and leisure – are every rising at completely different speeds and producing diverging engagement patterns.
The report’s dataset attracts from two sources: a listing of Modify’s high 5,000 apps spanning 45 nations, and a broader complete dataset overlaying roughly 250 nations and territories, primarily based on the ISO 3166-1 normal. All figures are aggregated and anonymized. The information window runs from January 2024 by way of March 2026, giving the report a longer-than-usual comparability baseline that permits year-over-year development traces to be drawn towards Q1 2026 efficiency.
PPC Land coated Modify’s international Cellular App Developments 2026 Version in February, which examined gaming, e-commerce, and finance efficiency throughout six world areas. The Vietnam highlight capabilities as a companion piece targeted on a single high-growth market.
Gaming: periods up 15% YoY, with technique the standout
Gaming is Vietnam’s largest app class by quantity. In accordance with Modify, the vertical recorded 1.29 billion downloads in 2025. Vietnamese studios accounted for 37% of all international sport app downloads that yr. In-app buy (IAP) income held at $259 million – a determine Modify positions as proof of monetization potential relative to the dimensions of the participant base, provided that digital wallets now account for 41% of on-line gaming transactions within the nation.
The headline engagement determine for Q1 2026 is a 15% year-over-year enhance in gaming app periods. That compares with 4% development globally and 5% in APAC over the identical interval, in response to Modify. It’s a significant hole. Inside 2025 itself, set up exercise concentrated mid-year: installs ran 19% above the annual common in Could, peaked at 45% above common in June, and remained elevated at 13% above common in July and 4% in August. Periods mirrored that sample, rising 8% in Could, 14% in July, and 12% in August. Momentum carried into 2026, with February installs 8% above the Q1 common and March periods up 7%.
Subvertical breakdown
The set up and session knowledge by gaming subvertical exhibits the place the expansion is concentrated. For installs in Q1 2026 in comparison with Q1 2025, board video games had been up 11% and technique video games up 16%, in response to Modify. On the periods aspect, the image is extra diverse. Informal video games led with 46% session development, adopted by technique at 282% – the very best single-subvertical quantity within the report. On line casino and puzzle periods every rose 18%, hybrid informal and hyper informal video games every grew 7%, simulation gained 5%.
The 282% technique session determine stands other than the remainder of the desk. It isn’t defined intimately within the report, however it coincides with the market’s total transfer towards hybrid informal and midcore titles. In accordance with Modify, studios are pushing into these codecs to transform the nation’s giant set up base into paying customers.
Session size knowledge reinforces that directional shift. The common cell gaming session in Vietnam elevated from 28.32 minutes in 2024 to 30.05 minutes in 2025, reaching 32.88 minutes in Q1 2026, in response to Modify. APAC and international session lengths declined in 2025 earlier than recovering in Q1 2026, however Vietnam’s trajectory was constantly upward. Technique video games recorded the longest periods amongst subverticals: 41.91 minutes in 2025, rising to 48.91 minutes in Q1 2026. Hybrid informal periods reached 25.1 minutes in Q1 2026, up from 23.38 minutes in 2025.
Retention charges
On retention, Vietnam trails international benchmarks. In accordance with Modify, gaming apps in Vietnam recorded a day 1 retention price of 19% in Q1 2026, in contrast with 20% in APAC and 28% globally. By day 7, Vietnam stood at 5% versus 7% in APAC and 14% globally. From day 14 onward, Vietnam and APAC converged at 3%, whereas each fell wanting the worldwide determine.
On the subvertical degree, day 1 retention improved throughout almost all classes between 2025 and Q1 2026. Board video games moved from 22% to 24%, idle RPG from 20% to 23%, on line casino from 11% to 14%, and phrase video games from 19% to 21%, in response to Modify.
Lengthy La, CEO of TP Leisure, addressed the retention query straight within the report: “Product high quality is the passport to sustainable development. Somewhat than relying solely on paid acquisition, apps should drive retention by way of actual worth, rock-solid stability, and a seamless person expertise.”
Finance: installs outpace INSEA, periods fall
Finance app dynamics in Vietnam are extra nuanced. Downloads hit 172 million in 2025, in response to Modify, and early 2026 indicators continued enlargement. Cellular funds grew 34.4% in quantity and 10.5% in worth within the first two months of 2026 in comparison with the identical interval in 2025. The tremendous app phase is consolidating: MoMo has surpassed 30 million customers, and ZaloPay grew its lively person base 40% in a single yr, in response to Modify.
In Q1 2026, finance app installs in Vietnam rose 21% year-over-year, outpacing the 13% enhance recorded in INSEA (India, Southeast Asia) over the identical interval. Nonetheless, periods in Vietnam declined 12% YoY throughout Q1 2026 – a divergence price inspecting. INSEA periods surged 81% in the identical quarter. The set up development due to this fact doesn’t but translate into engagement depth on the identical price.
Inside 2025, the install-to-sessions relationship shifted by way of the yr. Periods led first, rising 10% in March and 16% in April. Set up development got here later, up 15% in August and 17% in September. December was the strongest single month for finance app installs, sitting 38% above the annual common. Early 2026 introduced an additional reset: installs rose 7% in January, then installs and periods each accelerated in March, with installs up 22% and periods 12% towards the Q1 common, in response to Modify.
Subvertical standouts
Crypto and inventory buying and selling apps drove the quickest set up development in Q1 2026 in comparison with Q1 2025. Crypto installs rose 28% and inventory buying and selling installs climbed 36%, in response to Modify. On the periods aspect, inventory buying and selling grew 27% and fee apps 15%.
Session lengths in Vietnam’s finance vertical declined: from 6.81 minutes in 2025 to six.17 minutes in Q1 2026, following 2% YoY development the prior yr. In accordance with Modify, this sample might replicate the growing prevalence of tremendous apps and embedded monetary providers, the place digital funds and QR-based transactions cut back the time wanted per session. INSEA customers confirmed longer periods all through – 9.57 minutes in 2025, tapering to eight.3 minutes in Q1 2026 – suggesting Vietnam’s market is additional alongside the QR adoption curve. On the subvertical degree, inventory buying and selling periods averaged 20.76 minutes in 2025 and rose barely to twenty.94 minutes in Q1 2026, in response to Modify, whereas banking and fee periods shortened modestly.
Retention throughout finance apps was broadly aligned between Vietnam and INSEA. Day 1 retention stood at 9% in Vietnam and 10% in INSEA. Each markets reached 4% by day 7, 3% by day 14, and 1% by day 30, in response to Modify.
Huy Vu, Senior Progress Lead at Modify, described the behavioral context: “Vietnam stands out as a market the place person expectations for pace and ease in digital experiences are extraordinarily excessive. QR funds on-line and offline have turn into the norm, and other people more and more anticipate app-based providers. Success is pushed by how properly your apps suits into every day digital conduct and native person habits.”
Ngan Nguyen, Head of Advertising & Progress at Cake by VPBank, provided a perspective on loyalty dynamics: “Vietnamese customers are not loyal to apps only for the promotions – they keep for experiences that really perceive and seamlessly cater to their wants. That’s the reason Cake locations AI at our core: not merely as a function, however as a profound layer of buyer understanding. The platforms that efficiently converge expertise, knowledge, and person belief would be the ones driving the following wave of digital monetary development in Vietnam.”
Stricter biometric verification and buyer identification requirements launched within the finance vertical have raised compliance necessities for brand spanking new entrants, in response to Modify. That regulatory stress provides friction to person onboarding, which can partly clarify the session rely decline at the same time as installs develop.
Leisure: quick drama apps surge 271%, periods up 76%
Leisure is the fastest-moving vertical within the report. Video streaming app downloads rose 31% in 2025 to 43 million, whereas IAP income jumped 73% to $23.2 million, in response to Modify. Brief drama apps moved from area of interest to mainstream at pace: downloads surged 271% year-over-year in This autumn 2025 alone. The subgenre ranked fifth for IAP income throughout all app subgenres in Vietnam in 2025 at $11.5 million, with Dramawave, ShortMax, NetShort, and StardustTV among the many main titles.
The broader leisure set up and session figures in Q1 2026 are hanging. Leisure app installs in Vietnam grew 32% YoY, and periods rose 76%, in response to Modify. The Southeast Asia area as a complete noticed bigger features – installs up 98% and periods 80% – however Vietnam’s figures symbolize a pointy acceleration from the prior yr. Mid-2025 was the turning level: in July, installs ran 21% above the yr’s common and periods jumped 33%, a degree that held in August. Periods stayed elevated by way of the top of 2025, with extra features of 17% in September and December. In early 2026, January installs had been up 10% and March introduced development on each metrics – 11% for installs and 12% for periods.
Session lengths within the leisure vertical additionally elevated. The common session grew from 21.51 minutes in 2024 to 21.94 minutes in 2025 and reached 24.46 minutes in Q1 2026, a 12% enhance over the yr prior, in response to Modify. SEA as a complete had shorter periods – 14.57 minutes in 2025 and 14.28 minutes in Q1 2026 – suggesting Vietnam’s customers are spending materially extra time per leisure session than their regional counterparts. Video streaming subvertical periods rose from 19.65 minutes in 2025 to 23.95 minutes in Q1 2026. Music and audio periods grew from 21 to 21.65 minutes. Music and audio app installs in Vietnam grew 9% YoY in Q1 2026.
Leisure retention in Vietnam intently tracked SEA in Q1 2026. Day 1 retention was 8% in Vietnam and 9% in SEA, in response to Modify. By day 7, Vietnam stood at 2% and SEA at 3%. Each markets reached 2% by day 14 and 1% by day 30 – figures that replicate the inherently browsable nature of leisure content material in contrast with the utility-driven engagement of finance or gaming.
Regulatory setting shaping all three verticals
Decree 147, a 2024 regulation on web providers and digital media, tightened licensing, compliance, and content material necessities for gaming apps and had a major affect on Vietnam’s digital panorama, in response to Modify. The regulation launched a framework that provides operational overhead for brand spanking new studio entrants and for titles searching for to scale. In finance, biometric verification and buyer identification necessities launched stricter requirements. In leisure, a fragmented ecosystem spanning legacy media, OTT platforms, telco-bundled providers, and the fast-moving quick drama tier means person journeys are more and more non-linear and tougher to measure, the report states.
The regulatory complexity throughout all three verticals illustrates why measurement infrastructure has turn into a aggressive variable on this market. Attribution and retention knowledge have to be granular sufficient to tell apart natural development from paid acquisition, and to trace person conduct throughout codecs that don’t observe linear paths.
PPC Land has beforehand coated Modify’s web-to-app advertising handbook with Google Adverts, launched in September 2025, which addressed the rising complexity of cross-channel attribution funnels – a problem equally related in markets like Vietnam, the place person journeys span tremendous apps, OTT platforms, and cell internet. An earlier Modify report on e-commerce app efficiency, printed in August 2025, discovered that international e-commerce app installs declined 14% regardless of 2% session development – a sample that shares some structural resemblance with Vietnam’s finance session decline regardless of set up development in Q1 2026.
Why this issues for cell entrepreneurs
Vietnam’s mixture of scale, engagement depth, and regulatory complexity produces a measurement setting the place common regional benchmarks might mislead. Gaming periods in Vietnam grew at 3 times the worldwide price in Q1 2026, but day 7 retention in the identical class ran at lower than half the worldwide determine. Finance installs grew quicker than INSEA, however periods moved in the wrong way. Leisure session lengths exceeded regional friends by greater than 10 minutes per session. Every of these divergences has direct implications for the way person acquisition budgets are allotted, how lifetime worth is modeled, and the way retention campaigns are designed.
The Modify international 2026 report coated by PPC Land in February documented a 30% year-over-year rise in gaming cost-per-install globally, alongside a broader tightening of effectivity metrics. The Vietnam knowledge, against this, exhibits session development outpacing set up development in gaming – a configuration that means current person bases have gotten extra lively moderately than purely rising by way of new installs. That distinction issues for funds planning in a market the place set up prices aren’t static.
The report relies on aggregated and anonymized knowledge from apps tracked by Modify and should not replicate the complete international app market, the corporate notes. Forecasts referenced within the report are primarily based on third-party trade estimates and are topic to vary.
Timeline
- January 2024 – Modify’s knowledge assortment window for the Vietnam highlight report begins, overlaying gaming, finance, and leisure verticals throughout international, APAC, SEA, and INSEA areas
- 2024 – Decree 147 enacted in Vietnam, tightening licensing, compliance, and content material necessities for gaming apps and web providers
- 2024 – Common gaming session size in Vietnam stands at 28.32 minutes
- Could-June 2025 – Gaming app installs in Vietnam peak, with Could working 19% above the annual common and June reaching +45%
- July 2025 – Leisure app installs run 21% above the yr’s common; periods bounce 33%
- August 2025 – Modify reviews international e-commerce app installs down 14% regardless of 2% session development
- August-September 2025 – Finance app installs in Vietnam rise 15% in August and 17% in September
- This autumn 2025 – Brief drama app downloads in Vietnam surge 271% YoY; video streaming IAP income jumps 73% to $23.2 million for the total yr
- December 2025 – Finance app installs in Vietnam hit 38% above the annual common, the strongest single month of the yr
- September 2025 – Modify and Google Adverts launch web-to-app advertising handbook addressing cross-channel attribution complexity
- 2025 full yr – Vietnam ranks eleventh globally in app downloads with 2.88 billion installs and 127 billion hours spent in-app; gaming data 1.29 billion downloads; finance app downloads attain 172 million
- February 2026 – Modify international Cellular App Developments 2026 Version printed, documenting gaming CPI up 30% and ATT opt-in charges at 38%
- Q1 2026 – Gaming periods in Vietnam develop 15% YoY, versus 4% globally and 5% in APAC; finance installs rise 21% YoY; leisure installs up 32% and periods up 76%
- Q1 2026 – Common gaming session size in Vietnam reaches 32.88 minutes; leisure app periods common 24.46 minutes
- March 2026 – Information assortment window closes for Vietnam 2026 highlight report
- Could 27, 2026 – Modify publishes Cellular App Developments Highlight Version: Vietnam 2026
Abstract
Who: Modify, an AppLovin firm, printed the report. Information covers apps throughout the gaming, finance, and leisure verticals tracked by Modify between January 2024 and March 2026.
What: The Cellular App Developments Highlight Version: Vietnam 2026 supplies benchmark knowledge on installs, periods, session lengths, and retention charges for Vietnam, in contrast towards international, APAC, SEA, and INSEA benchmarks. Key findings embrace: gaming periods up 15% YoY in Q1 2026, finance installs up 21% YoY in Q1 2026, quick drama app downloads up 271% YoY in This autumn 2025, and leisure periods up 76% YoY in Q1 2026.
When: The report was printed on Could 27, 2026, drawing on knowledge collected from January 2024 by way of March 2026.
The place: Vietnam, analyzed inside Southeast Asia and APAC regional comparisons. Modify is headquartered in Berlin (Modify GmbH, Saarbrücker Str. 37A, 10405 Berlin), represented by Andrey Kazakov and Egor Lukomsky.
Why: Vietnam’s place because the eleventh largest app market globally by obtain quantity, mixed with diverging engagement patterns throughout verticals and a shifting regulatory setting below Decree 147, makes granular benchmarking knowledge related for cell entrepreneurs making person acquisition, retention, and measurement choices out there.
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