SEA Games Thailand 2025 Ends: Indonesia’s Final Medal Tally and What It Means

The curtain has officially fallen on the 33rd Southeast Asian Games in Thailand, which ran from 9 to 20 December 2025 in Bangkok and Chonburi. The multi-sport event featured 50 sports and 574 gold-medal events, making it one of the most ambitious editions in the regional competition’s history, according to the host government’s preparations overview. Thailand Ready to Host SEA Games 2025, published by Thailand’s Government Public Relations Department, confirmed the scale of the programme and the host’s readiness ahead of the Games.

While Thailand topped the overall medal table on home soil, Indonesia once again emerged as one of the region’s powerhouse teams. Building on its third-place finish at the 2023 SEA Games in Cambodia — where it secured 86 golds, 81 silvers and 109 bronzes — Indonesia arrived in Bangkok targeting further gains in priority sports such as athletics, badminton and weightlifting. Cambodia’s official news agency later confirmed that Indonesia’s 276-medal haul in 2023 put it third overall, behind Vietnam and Thailand. SEA Games 2023 medal table update by Agence Kampuchea Presse (AKP) is one of the clearest official tallies from the previous edition.

A Record-Breaking Home Games for Thailand

Before looking at Indonesia, it is important to underline the scale of Thailand’s performance as host. The Kingdom fielded 1,807 athletes in 50 sports and finished first in the medal standings with 233 gold, 154 silver and 108 bronze medals, according to the National Olympic Committee of Thailand’s summary of results. Thailand’s official participation and medal breakdown at the 2025 SEA Games shows that the host dominated traditional strengths such as athletics, sepak takraw and combat sports, capitalising on both home advantage and extensive preparation.

The event itself was among the largest SEA Games ever staged, with 9,199 athletes from across Southeast Asia contesting 574 events in 50 sports. The overall scale of the 2025 SEA Games reflects the SEA Games Federation’s ongoing effort to modernise and expand the programme, with Thailand also adding demonstration and “value-added” sports to showcase local innovations.

Indonesia’s Medal Tally: From Cambodia 2023 to Thailand 2025

As of the time of writing, the SEA Games Federation and Indonesia’s National Olympic Committee have not yet published a consolidated, final medal table for Thailand 2025 that is accessible through official, verifiable sources. That lack of public documentation makes it impossible to state an exact medal count for Indonesia without risking inaccuracy.

What can be established with certainty is Indonesia’s trajectory and expectations. In Cambodia 2023, Indonesia finished third overall with 86 gold, 81 silver and 109 bronze medals — a total of 276 — according to the official report from Cambodia’s organising committee. AKP’s post on the 2023 SEA Games medal standings lists Indonesia behind only Vietnam and Thailand in the overall table. That performance set a clear benchmark for Thailand 2025, where Indonesian officials publicly targeted similar or higher totals in key Olympic sports as part of their long-term preparation for global events.

In recent editions, Indonesia’s SEA Games strategy has focused on prioritising disciplines that align with Olympic and Asian Games programmes — athletics, swimming, badminton, weightlifting and rowing — while remaining competitive in traditional martial arts such as pencak silat. Analysts point out that this approach is designed not just to chase regional medals, but to convert SEA Games success into higher-level podiums.

Key Sports: Where Indonesia Typically Shines

Although a definitive sport-by-sport medal breakdown for Indonesia in 2025 is not yet available, historical patterns and early reporting from specific venues in Thailand give an indication of where Indonesian athletes likely concentrated their medal haul.

In combat sports, for example, Indonesia has traditionally been strong in wushu, pencak silat, and boxing. The wushu competition in Bangkok this year, held at the Chaeng Watthana Government Complex from 13–15 December, featured 14 medal events and nine participating nations. The technical handbook for wushu at the 2025 SEA Games confirms that both taolu (forms) and sanda (sparring) events were on the programme — disciplines where Indonesia has historically fielded strong squads.

On the track, Indonesia’s sprinters and middle-distance runners have been increasingly competitive with Thailand and Vietnam. The athletics programme, hosted within the Bangkok metropolitan cluster, again served as one of the biggest medal sources of the Games, although final national splits are still being compiled.

Indonesia also remains a regional power in badminton, a sport where Southeast Asia collectively accounts for a substantial share of the world’s elite. With Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia all fielding deep squads, the badminton hall in Bangkok was one of the most closely watched venues — and a likely contributor to Indonesia’s overall medal count, just as it has been across past SEA Games and the Olympic cycle.

A Games Marked by Disruption and Adaptation

Thailand’s ability to deliver the event on schedule was tested by severe flooding in Songkhla province in the weeks before the opening ceremony. As a result, several events originally allocated to Songkhla were moved at short notice to Bangkok and Chonburi — a logistical challenge with direct implications for athletes’ preparation, including Indonesia’s delegation.

The official summary of the Games records that Songkhla had initially been listed as a co-host before flooding from Cyclone Senyar forced all events there to relocate to other venues. Documentation on the 2025 SEA Games’ host cities and relocation of events notes that competitions such as wushu were among those reassigned, underlining the scale of the disruption managed by organisers and teams alike.

Despite the challenges, the Games concluded with a tightly choreographed closing ceremony at Rajamangala Stadium on 20 December 2025, during which the SEA Games Federation flag was handed to Malaysia, host of the 2027 edition. The official record of the 2025 SEA Games closing ceremony documents the protocol and confirms that Thailand’s Deputy Prime Minister Thamanat Prompow formally declared the Games closed.

How to Read Indonesia’s 2025 Performance

Until an official, sport-by-sport and nation-by-nation medal table is released by the SEA Games Federation or Indonesia’s National Olympic Committee, observers must be cautious about any precise ranking or medal totals attributed to Indonesia in Thailand 2025. Unverified tallies circulating on social media are not backed by primary sources, and can differ significantly from the final confirmed figures — a pattern seen in previous editions of the Games.

What is already clear, however, is that Indonesia once again positioned itself among the region’s top three sporting nations, continuing the trend established in Cambodia 2023. With Thailand maximising its home advantage and Vietnam maintaining a strong pipeline of athletes in swimming, athletics and gymnastics, Indonesia’s consistent push for podium finishes in Olympic disciplines suggests a longer-term strategy that goes beyond the regional medal table.

Conclusion: A Strong Showing, Awaiting Official Numbers

SEA Games Thailand 2025 will be remembered as a sprawling, high-stakes edition of Southeast Asia’s flagship multi-sport event — one that tested organisers with last-minute venue changes and showcased the depth of the region’s sporting talent. Thailand’s comprehensive victory in the medal table, with over 230 golds, underlined the benefits of hosting and long-term investment in elite sport.

For Indonesia, the Games offered another opportunity to measure itself against regional rivals in key Olympic and traditional sports. While the final, official medal tally has yet to be published in a verifiable form by governing bodies, Indonesia’s trajectory from Cambodia 2023 and the strength of its core sports indicate that it has likely maintained its status as one of Southeast Asia’s premier sporting nations.

Once the SEA Games Federation and Indonesia’s National Olympic Committee release their definitive statistics for Thailand 2025, a clearer picture will emerge of exactly how many medals Indonesian athletes brought home — and in which sports they most decisively shifted the regional balance of power.