Africa is undoubtedly a continent on the up in many respects. And, while gaming has always been popular, you can now go as far as saying that it’s very possible in the future that Africa will take over the global gaming scene, which is some going when you consider it lagged behind for so long on the technological front.
The go-to for Africans, usually young males, where gaming was concerned for many years was console gaming. And this doesn’t mean that everyone had a console to play. Instead, many Africans had to head to local internet cafes if they wanted to spend some time gaming, as this is where the consoles and a connection to the online world were available. At this point, you could say taking over the global gaming scene appeared to be a long way off.
But something came along and changed the gaming scene in Africa forever, and that something was, of course, the humble smartphone. You see, by using smartphones, gamers in Africa have access to games and the internet on-demand. It’s a ton more convenient, and it makes gaming more accessible too. If someone wants to play a puzzle game in the afternoon, they can be up and running in seconds. And the same applies to playing online roulette games and other online casino offerings via any of the many reputable gambling platforms.
The numbers reflect the significant impact that smartphones have made, with there now being in the region of 190 million gamers in Africa today, compared to around 80 million in 2015. There’s been an increase of over 100 million active gamers across the continent, and this number is only going to continue to grow as time goes on because of the improvements made across the board to smartphones, content, and connectivity technology.
It’s probably obvious, but the country in Africa that currently has the largest share of the gaming market activity in South Africa. There are over 20 million active gamers alone in the country, and there is some suggestion that gaming is taking over from more traditional pastimes, such as watching movies and listening to music, which shows just how popular it has become since 2015 and when smartphones became readily available.
When you have a region of the world growing so fast in a specific industry, it alerts those within said industry, who then want to capitalise on the rapid growth and enhance it as best as possible. And the situation in Africa with gaming is no different. It’s hard to ignore a continent that has seen over 100 million more citizens turn to gaming in less than a decade, after all.
And this will work out great for African gamers because more money is being invested in the gaming industry in the region, which will ultimately mean there will be better gaming content, devices to play the games on, and more than likely faster and more reliable internet connections, which could shore up Africa’s challenge to be the number one gaming hub on the planet.