Africa’s Emerging Gaming Market

Mobile gaming is one of the fastest-growing markets in the world, it has in fact been attributed to over 50% of all gaming done across all platforms as the evolving audience and technology advancements allow for our modern mobile devices to be used for much more - of these markets seeing huge growth, Africa may be the next major emerging market to join in the craze as a number of factors that would restrict new players seem to be easing over time. 

Cost of devices 

The first big hurdle to overcome has been within the cost of devices, newer flagships have already begun to sneak into the four-digit area as even new consumer devices are breaking the $1,000 barrier, but as western users upgrade their devices every 12-18 months it has created a thriving market for second-hand devices that are still relatively brand new, and allow for these emerging markets to get top of the line devices that are only a year old, and still very current. 

A fall in data costs 

The second factor has been within recent changes in the cost of data - now compared to many other regions it is still relatively high and not the most reliable, but as infrastructure continues to improve the data costs will continue to drop alongside it and capacity will continue to increase - we’re already on the cusp of the release of 5G and whilst many western countries will have the challenge of updating their own infrastructure, by being a little behind Africa has the ability to roll it out in a much faster and more widespread way and could be the catalyst for the young market and allow for further expansion as the opportunity is found.  

More awareness and less regulation 

One challenge in other markets has been around regulation - a recent change for one, for example, has been within the gamstop initiative within the UK as it had recently been made mandatory for all operators or be at risk of losing their gaming license, there are a growing number of operators choosing to register elsewhere to avoid this however and Casinos Not on Gamstop list them for users - with increasing awareness for these types of sites and the lack of restriction for players in newer markets it allows for emerging markets to experience very rapid growth. 

It’s an exciting time for mobile users in general, technology is moving rapidly and many of the day to day systems used are a big improvement for many, and as infrastructure is put in place for many of these systems across Africa it could be well on its way to meeting the reputation of the next silicon valley as it has been dubbed - the opportunities are there to be taken, and within the next few years it’s likely we’ll see Africa become the next big hub for mobile gaming as a whole as they continue to catch other developed regions with many systems already in place.