Seven in ten adults in Indonesia say their home nation will top the SEA Games medal tally

Games-watchers most interested in following badminton, football, and martial arts

Following a Covid-19 delay, the biennial Southeast Asian (SEA) Games kicked off in Hanoi last week, where more than 5,000 athletes are vying for over 500 gold medals. Latest data from YouGov Realtime Omnibus indicates that people in Indonesia are confident in their country’s performance, with seven in ten saying the nation will top the overall medal tally (69%).

Young adults aged 18-24 were most likely to put their confidence in Indonesia, with three-quarters saying their home nation would win the most medals (75%).

Respondents were next most confident in Thailand (11%) and Vietnam’s (11%) performances, while fewer said Singapore (3%) or Malaysia (2%) would top the tally.

Residents also seem to be soaking up the sporting atmosphere, with almost all of those who are aware of the Games intending to follow them too (96%).

Watching the competition on TV (73%) and catching up on news in newspapers and online media (43%) are the top ways residents intend to follow the Games. A further two in five said they would stream it online (38%), with young adults aged 18-24 most likely to do so (43%).

Fewer said they would watch the sporting events at a bar or screening (5%) or go as far as to watch an event in person (4%).

With the most popular reason for following the Games being an existing interest in specific sports (49%), YouGov also polled respondents on the events they were most likely to follow. Badminton was the most popular sport among residents (77%), with women (81%) significantly more likely to follow the sport than men (74%).

Next up was football and futsal (52%) – which men were significantly more likely to express interest in (64%) – and accounted for the biggest disparity in interest between the genders.

Three in ten said they intend to follow grappling and martial arts (30%) and volleyball (29%), with men significantly more likely to express interest in both sports (32% for grappling and martial arts; 33% for volleyball).

Almost a quarter said they would follow aquatics (24%), with women (29%) more likely to follow the sport than men (20%).

***Results based on 2,042 Indonesian residents surveyed on YouGov RealTime Omnibus. Residents who would follow the Games accounted for 1,466 of the 2,042 respondents. Data figures have been weighted by gender, age, socioeconomic class, city tier to be representative of the adult online population in Indonesia (18 years or older), and reflect the latest Indonesian Bureau of Statistics (BPS) population estimates.

Find out more in our Global Sports Whitepaper which will be launching on 7 June 2022. Preregister here