The State of Expat Football in Southeast Asia 2026

Updated 25 September 2026, with data to 24 September 2026.

Pickup football has quietly become one of the most reliable ways for expats and digital nomads to build a social life in Southeast Asia. It is not organised sport in the traditional sense, and it is not tourism. It is something in between: turn up alone, get put on a team, play, and come back next week.

We wanted to put numbers on it. This report draws on data from the KickHub platform across Bangkok and Bali, and it covers who plays, how they play, and what the game does for people far from home.

Key findings

• Since the first game on 15 September 2025, 1,900 players have taken 13,371 spots across 933 games in Bangkok and Bali.
• 3,464 accounts are registered. Players on record come from 83 nationalities, and organisers have seen players from 120 countries in total.
• Games grew from 32 a month at launch to 99 a month in August 2026.
• People come back: 59% of players have returned for a second game, and 27% have played five or more.
• A committed core carries the community: fewer than 1 in 10 players account for half of all games played. 28 players have played more than 50 games, and 6 have passed 100.
• Demand outruns supply. Bangkok games ran 97% full in August 2026 and have not dropped below 90% since March. Bali has run 94% to 98% full since regular games began in May 2026.
• 1,617 spots were booked by a player for someone else. The community grows by bringing friends.

What pickup football actually is

Pickup football is a casual game you join as an individual, without belonging to a club or a team. You book a spot, turn up, get put on a side that evening, play, and leave. There is no season, no squad and no obligation to come back.

That distinction matters for understanding the data. Traditional football in Southeast Asia is organised around clubs, leagues and fixed squads, which requires commitment most foreigners cannot give: they arrive mid-season, travel for work, or do not know how long they are staying. Pickup removes the commitment and keeps the sport. Locally, the small-sided version is usually called futsal. Elsewhere people say five-a-side or seven-a-side. It is the same activity.

Methodology

The figures come from aggregated, anonymised booking records on the KickHub platform, covering games played between 15 September 2025 and 24 September 2026. No personal data is used.

• A game is a scheduled game that was not cancelled.
• A spot is a confirmed seat that was not later cancelled. One player can book several spots, for friends.
• A player is anyone who held at least one spot. Registered accounts exclude guest profiles created by organisers.
• Fill rate is spots taken divided by the spots on offer, per city and month.
• Nationality is optional on a KickHub profile, so the 83 recorded nationalities undercount the real mix.
• Monthly tables use complete months, up to August 2026. Records from the first months are less complete, so early figures are best read as lower bounds.

KickHub is a booking platform, so the data captures how people find, book and play casual games. It does not capture informal kickabouts organised privately, so the real scene is larger than these numbers.

The scale: a scene that barely existed a year ago

The growth is the headline. KickHub ran its first game in Bangkok on 15 September 2025. A year later it was operating in two countries, 1,900 people had played, and those players had taken 13,371 spots between them.

Volume dipped in the spring, then climbed to a record 99 games in August 2026.

Bangkok fill rates start in December 2025. Booking records from the first three months are incomplete and undercount how full those games were, so they are left out.

Download these monthly figures as a CSV file (September 2025 to August 2026).

Bali fill is shown from May 2026, when regular games began. Earlier months had only a handful of games.

Who actually plays

The crowd is the point. Players on record come from 83 nationalities, and organisers have seen players from 120 countries, a mix of expats, digital nomads and locals playing side by side. That is unusual: football in the region is often either fully local or fully expat, rarely both on the same pitch. Pickup is where the two worlds actually meet.

The games are open to all levels by design, which is part of why the mix stays this broad. Nobody is screened, and teams are balanced on the day rather than picked on reputation.

There is a smaller signal worth noting. 1,617 of the spots filled to date were booked by a player on behalf of somebody else. People do not just join this scene, they pull other people into it, which is how a community of this size grows without a marketing budget behind every game.

How they play

One pattern stands out above the rest: people come back.

59% of everyone who has played has come back for at least a second game, and 27% have played five or more. On average, each player has played around six games. For a casual, no-commitment activity in cities where people arrive and leave constantly, that is high. Pickup football here is not a one-off tourist experience. It is a habit.

Games are small-sided: KickHub runs 7-a-side, with some longer sessions of three teams rotating. Prices vary by city, venue and how early you book. The Bangkok and Bali guides list current prices.

Football here is also an evening activity, driven by the heat and by work schedules. In both cities, the busiest slots are after work.

The committed core

The most striking finding in the data is how concentrated participation is.

Fewer than 1 in 10 players who have ever played account for half of all games played. 28 players have turned out more than 50 times each, and 6 have passed 100 games (staff and organiser accounts excluded). At the other end, plenty of people try it once and move on, which is normal for anything casual in a transient city.

This is the shape of every functioning pickup community, and it explains why these scenes survive high population turnover. The regulars are the infrastructure. New arrivals cycle through constantly, but because a committed core keeps showing up, the game is always on, and there is always someone there who knows how it works. You do not need a stable population to build a stable community. You need a stable core.

Demand is outrunning supply

The clearest sign that this is a real trend rather than a novelty is that the pitches keep filling up.

Bangkok games ran 97% full in August 2026 and have not dropped below 90% since March. Bali has run between 94% and 98% full every month since regular games began in May. The constraint on pickup football in Southeast Asia right now is not demand from players. It is the number of pitches available at the hours people actually want to play.

Bangkok vs Bali: two different scenes

The two cities behave differently, and the data shows it.

Bangkok is the engine. Of the 933 games KickHub has organised, 841 have been in Bangkok, today at POLO Football Park, OASIS and Grand Soccer Pro On Nut. Demand runs ahead of supply: the city's games ran 97% full in August.

Bali is younger and smaller but growing. The first games ran in January 2026, a regular schedule started in May, and The Kick Off Arena in Canggu now hosts about four games a week. What stands out is conversion: 54% of people who sign up in Bali go on to play, against 48% in Bangkok. In a place defined by people constantly arriving and leaving, a regular game gives a transient population a fixed point.

Why this matters: football as expat social infrastructure

Here is the part the numbers point to but do not fully capture.

In cities with high turnover, like Canggu and expat Bangkok, the hardest thing is not finding a villa or a co-working space. It is building a circle of people you actually see every week. Networking events give you one conversation with someone who leaves the country a month later. A standing football game gives you the same faces, on the same evenings, without anyone having to organise it.

That repetition is what turns strangers into a group. The data behind KickHub started from exactly this problem: our founder moved to Bangkok, wanted to play, wanted to meet people, and found the games buried in group chats he could not access. The platform was built to remove that barrier. The fact that most players come back suggests it is working, and that they are coming for more than the football.

What comes next

The scene is still expanding, and Phuket is the next city. The constraint is pitches, not players, so growth now means more venues at the hours people want to play. The underlying trend, sport as social infrastructure for a mobile generation, is only getting stronger.

If you want to see the state of it for yourself, the easiest way is to play. Book a game in Bangkok or in Bali.

Questions people ask about pickup football in Southeast Asia

How many people play pickup football in Bangkok and Bali?

3,464 accounts are registered on KickHub across the two cities, and 1,900 people have played at least once, taking 13,371 spots across 933 games since September 2025. The true figure for the region is higher, since informal games organised privately are not captured here.

Is pickup football popular with expats in Southeast Asia?

Yes, and it is growing. Games organised through KickHub rose from 32 a month at launch in September 2025 to 99 in August 2026, and Bangkok games ran 97% full that month.

Do you need to be good at football to join?

No. Games are open to all levels and teams are balanced on the day, which is why the player mix spans complete beginners and former semi-professionals.

How much does it cost?

It varies by city, venue and how early you book. The Bangkok and Bali guides list current prices, and the app shows the exact price before you pay.

Why do expats and nomads play pickup rather than join a club?

Clubs require a season-long commitment that most foreigners cannot give, because they arrive mid-season, travel for work, or do not know how long they are staying. Pickup keeps the sport and removes the commitment.

Cite this report

Suggested citation: KickHub (2026). The State of Expat Football in Southeast Asia 2026. kickhub.app/articles/state-of-expat-football-southeast-asia-2026

A sentence you can quote: According to KickHub's booking data, Bangkok pickup football games ran 97% full in August 2026, and fewer than 1 in 10 players account for half of all games played.

About KickHub: KickHub is a pickup football platform in Bangkok and Bali. Players book a single spot in a 7-a-side game through the KickHub app or kickhub.app, with no team or membership needed, and the teams are made on the day. Founded in Bangkok in 2025 by Ludovic Lin Yoshimura, KickHub has more than 4,000 registered players and runs games at POLO Football Park, OASIS and Grand Soccer Pro On Nut in Bangkok, and The Kick Off Arena in Canggu, Bali.

The data: download the monthly figures (CSV). If you use these figures, please link to this page. For interviews or data requests, email ludovic@kickhub.app, and see the press kit for photos and key facts.