IN-GAME MARKETING

Huge marketing potential as mobile gaming explodes across Africa

By our News Team | 2022

As more people across the continent embrace mobile gaming, there is exciting new potential for reaching Millennial and Gen Z audiences.

The spending power of Millennial and Gen Z consumers has skyrocketed. This creates a potentially attractive return on investment for in-game advertising and branding strategies – given that they can reach millions of focused and engaged gamers in this key demographic.

For marketers in Africa, where younger consumers are a dominant force due to their sheer number, the recent Mordor Intelligence Africa Gaming Market report makes for insightful reading, given that it says mobile gaming in Africa is expected to grow at 12% per year through to 2026.

Across the continent, the number of videogame consumers increased from 77-million in 2015 to more than 185-million at the end of last year. Additionally, 95% of gamers in Africa are using mobile devices as their platform of choice, as opposed to consoles and PCs.

This is according to technology giant Huawei, which has published a post summarising the outlook for mobile gaming on the continent.

Photo by Artem Podrez from Pexels

Reinforcing this is the statistic that shows South African mobile gamers are spending more than four hours daily on their devices. And with 71% of South African adults playing mobile games, the market in in this country shows the growing potential across the continent for game developers who might have previously been focused on gaining a foothold in the American, European and Asian markets, Huawei says.

Nigerian market will be worth US$126-million

This is strengthened by other countries in the region as well. For instance, the app-based mobile gaming market in Nigeria is estimated to be worth about US$126-million. And in Zimbabwe, mobile gaming has a projected market volume of $35-million by 2026.

“The pandemic has benefited the mobile gaming industry, not only in Africa but in the rest of the world,” the Huawei post notes.

Mobile games by South African publishers have an average of more than 222 000 downloads per month. Even though only 11% of games by local publishers are paid for, 75% of mobile titles include ads, with 20% of games using in-app payments for monetisation.

Meanwhile in Nigeria, the number of mobile gaming users is expected to top 105 million by 2026, while Zimbabwe is projected to reach three-million users during the same time period.

“Given the ubiquity of mobile devices and the increasing affordability of mobile data, more Africans have been able to access mobile gaming in the past two years than ever before,” says Huawei.

“In a world where social distancing and lockdowns have become the norm, being able to play online against friends using a mobile device has been invaluable. This has created renewed interest in the potential of mobile gaming in Africa and will see more developers looking to capitalise on this.”

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