The gaming industry in Africa

Experts answer: What is the gaming industry’s audience in Africa, and how will the sphere develop?

Two hundred million gamers in Africa spend hundreds of millions of dollars on games—these are objective figures. Mobile gaming is predominant in the country. This data was provided by the Africa Games Industry Report.

According to one of the developers, South Africa is most likely the largest and most developed gaming market today. However, the opportunities for the African gaming industry are smaller and even harder to imagine. There is a truly huge potential market for games in Africa, as the continent’s cultural richness suggests opportunities for unique intellectual property to emerge.

That said, potential investors who might invest in the African gaming industry need help understanding the revenue potential. Information on the continent’s key industry players helps fill the gap.

Spending on gaming among African residents

So, on average, it costs six dollars per African per year to buy games, and these are mostly mobile games. A total of $778.6 million is spent on game app purchases in sub-Saharan Africa—and that’s 90% of the entire region’s spending. South Africa spends an average of $12 dollars per person on games, while Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, and Ethiopia, by comparison, spend between two and five dollars.

That said, spending is on the rise, and Africa is expected to spend more than a billion dollars on gaming for the first time in 2024. Looking at the number of gamers, such predictions become clearer. For example, if in 2015 there were 77 million of them, in 2021, there will already be 186 million, and this is a significant growth. The most players are in Nigeria—as of today, there are 46.5 million of them.

The iGaming market in Africa

In addition to traditional video games, Africans are increasingly passionate about gambling. Since casinos and bookmakers moved their business to the Internet, the number of their customers has grown significantly. The number of brands themselves has also increased, and they are actively competing with each other. To understand this, our authors studied the advantages of some operators from the top of the search engine.

So, 1win provides an extremely wide catalog of gambling, entertainment, and sports betting, and Melbet offers users various promotions and bonuses. To get them, you need only find out the current and use it during registration. Then, you will only need to deposit your account and activate the bonus.

These and other advantages actively attract Africans, especially the younger generation. The market of the continent is very promising and far from saturation, so the number of brands on it will only increase.