The Most Popular Game Streamers in Africa by Katie Wager

The game streaming industry has long been part of our everyday life. In North America, Europe, and Asia, it has grown to such a scale that local streamers now enjoy international popularity and have millions of followers. The African region, on the other hand, has been showing modest results. 

Today, we will talk to Katie Wager, an expert who has analyzed the game streaming market in Africa and identified the most popular streamers on the continent.  

Interviewer (I): Hi Katie! Before we proceed with your list of the most popular streamers, let me ask a few questions. Why do you think the African region has lagged behind Europe, Asia, or North America until recently? And what factors have contributed to the growing fan base of African game streamers? 

Katie (K): Well, it’s a known fact that the African continent, with the exception of several countries, is significantly behind the listed regions in terms of technological development. Unfortunately, this has historical implications; and game streaming is no different from any other activity in this regard. 

I: But everything has changed, hasn't it? 

K: Historically, the technology was proliferating from Europe or North America to Africa, and not vice versa. This is the case with game streaming as well. Today, the pace of proliferation is much faster thanks to globalization and the fact that we live in the digital era. African countries are now introducing new technologies and adopting new trends much faster. After all, we live and work on the Internet. 

I: Still, adopting the trend is not enough. You need to gain the audience that will be interested in this. 

K: Right, and the audience is there, ready to get on board. We are now talking about countries such as South Africa, Nigeria, and Egypt. Watching the streams of European and American players, the viewers realized that they want to see their fellow citizens and local streamers play. Supply and demand appeared almost simultaneously. 

I: And now, Africa has its own top streamers. 

K: That's right. I spent enough time studying this segment to choose the most popular ones. 

I: Are you ready to reveal your list? 

K: Of course. But I’d like to note that this won't be a descending or ascending list, these are just 3 popular streamers without any ranking. 

I: Fair enough.  

K: The first one is Dangerous Dave. He is nicknamed after the 1988 computer game. Dave is a writer for a gaming magazine. So, he is totally aware of how to better deliver his content to the public. Dave began as a YouTube blogger, where he has his own Super2Bit channel. As for game streaming, Dave prefers live streams on his Facebook page and Twitch. Among the games that you can find in Dave's streams are Public Unknown Battleground, Call of Duty, and Star Wars. At the same time, Dave understands that a balance must be maintained between new releases and popular but older games that subscribers love so much. 

I: And he is popular because..? 

K: He makes it a real show. This is largely because he does not take himself and his activities too seriously. Viewers feel this attitude and get relaxed, laughing at Dave's constant jokes. By the end of his streams, Dave likes to demonstrate his terrible dance to an equally terrible track that he himself wrote. This is very funny, I assure you. 

I: Okay, let’s proceed to the next streamer.  

K: My next pick is UFD Tech. With over 340,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel, UFD is the most popular computer hardware reviewer in Africa. However, he wouldn't be on this list if he wasn't a game streamer, would he? The thing is that UFD has started his career in game streaming relatively recently. Having a large audience on his channel, he was able to organically shift to a new type of content. Fortunately, there are a lot of gaming fans among people interested in computer hardware. 

UFD takes part in streamer gatherings and presentations of new games, trying to expand the circle of his acquaintances. Co-streaming with other representatives of the African game streaming community is a frequent occurrence, which also helps to increase UFD's popularity. 

I: That’s interesting. Is it a common case when a blogger with a large audience in another segment switches to game streaming and automatically becomes popular? 

K: I don't have any specific data, so I cannot answer this question. But I think this process is quite logical, right?

I: Well, yeah, if these aren't completely different segments, then the audience will likely be open to content diversification. 

K: Agreed. The last streamer for today is a lady, AliasV. She is somewhat different from the two previous streamers because she pays more attention to intellectual card games like Magic: The Gathering, where she plays for the Complexity team. She started streaming in 2017. Then, she focused on another card game — Gwent. Despite this, she also regularly streams more popular games such as Last of Us, Horizon Zero Dawn, and Destiny 2. In addition, like every gamer on this planet, AliasV is looking forward to the release of Cyberpunk 2077. So, if you believe that Cyberpunk 2077 should turn the game world upside down, and look for a streamer who will be among the first to play it, then feel free to subscribe to AliasV.

I: Well, these three streamers have come out diverse enough. But I agree, all of them will soon be united by Cyberpunk 2077. Although personally, I will probably go through the game on my own first. 

K: Good idea.

I: Well Katie, thank you very much for this interview and for your opinion regarding streamers from Africa. I hope it wasn't the last time we talked to you. See you! 

K: See you!