Africa’s Mobile Gaming Will Hold a Major Market Share
According to industry experts, the gaming market is expected to record a 12% CAGR between 2020 and 2025. This growth is all thanks to the rise in popularity and availability of multi-functional gaming consoles in emerging markets and influencing the market growth in these regions.
Currently, Africa’s youth population is on the rise. The continent’s young population (people aged between 0-24 years) is expected to rise by almost 50% by 2050. The youth is critical to the continent’s mobile gaming industry and video game market as a whole.
African studios are growing together with sites like Betway, making new channels by launching original local content. As a result, mobile gaming will claim the biggest market share over the next five years, bringing in almost 50% of the total annual revenue recorded in the continent’s gaming industry.
With over 200 million Africans being below 35 years, the continent makes an excellent market for smartphone manufacturers and mobile game creators. Mobile gaming is gaining tremendous popularity in remote regions of Africa, thanks to several major drivers. For instance, there are over 290 million mobile phones in North Africa, with the mobile market generating $90 billion every year.
The potential to create a mega real-money gaming industry is one of the major drivers in Africa’s gaming market. Mobile technology is quickly spreading around the continent, as a large swath paves the way for gaming and legal betting. For this reason, Africans are continually enjoying betting through Betway Kenya app download and other mobile bookie sites in the continent.
The acceleration of mobile networks in Sub-Saharan Africa is a crucial driver in reducing the coverage gap. This infrastructure deployment in the region increased 3G in 2018, with over 80 million people having access to mobile games.
Over 3 billion people live in areas with mobile broadband networks, though they don’t use the internet. This usage gap is almost four times the coverage gap, and such factors might negatively impact gaming companies in the region.
A Competitive Landscape
The gaming industry is fragmented as the increase in mobile penetration and the rise in demand for online games will help attract new players in the market over the next half a decade. Earlier in May this year, Sony announced its new branding for its PS5 games to help their customers know that a title is from their in-house development team.
In August last year, Konami Digital Entertainment announced the release of their mobile game (e-Football PES 2020) would be unveiled in October as a complete overhaul of the PES 2019 game. The last update of the PES Mobile series attracted over 200 million downloads this year, with many critical licenses and features for PES 2020 on console and PC confirmed.
While issues like laws and regulations, fraud concerns, and piracy might impact the gaming industry’s growth, mobile gaming has already started its domination journey. Some of the top countries in the mobile gaming market include Kenya, South Africa, and Nigeria.
