Smartphones have come to occupy a central place in all of our lives – and for good reason. After all, where would you be without your trusty pocket computer that serves as a camera, planner, phone, and web browser all wrapped into a simple and sleek package?
It can be easy to forget that smartphones have only been popular for about 15 years, yet in that time they have become the best selling and most successful single product category ever made. This huge impact has reconfigured society and business around them – from the rise of social media apps through which most people now get their news, to the growing number of people that opt to watch shows and movies on the mobile version of popular streaming services like Netflix.
Another key area that has experienced a sea-change in the way it is organised in the wake of the smartphone era is gaming. Video games have steadily been growing more popular for decades – and if one looks back to the period just before the first iPhone hit the shelves, one might easily imagine that the sector was already going from strength to strength with the likes of Microsoft’s Xbox and Sony’s PlayStation grabbing headlines and seemingly occupying pride of place in everyone’s living rooms.
But the reality is that only 20% of people own a games console – whereas over 95% own a smartphone. In light of this, smartphone gaming has come to grow ever more relevant, with major developers now producing top tier titles for the platform. Suffice to say, gone are the days of Fruit Ninja and Angry Birds. But what are playing on their phones nowadays in South Africa? Like many developed economies, South Africa’s mobile gaming market is undergoing some meaningful shifts towards new ways of playing and engaging with games – let’s take a look at the state of play today, below.
Cloud Gaming
Still considered to be somewhat in its infancy, cloud gaming is on track to supplant many other existing game genres on mobile platforms before the end of the decade. The reasons for this are simple – cloud gaming offering console level experiences for mobile gamers, and often at a fraction of the price.
Think of these services as similar to Netflix or YouTube in that they stream content to your device, rather than relying on you storing the game files locally. That means that you don’t need a powerful console or gaming PC to run these titles, providing you have a good internet connection instead.
The most popular example of a cloud gaming service in 2024 is the one that comes bundled with Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription. For a nominal monthly fee, you can access over 200 games – including day one releases of new Series X|S titles, and can play at your leisure on any device of your choosing.
Legacy Browser and iGaming
While apps typically rule the roost on mobile, one of the strongest performing gaming sectors on mobile remains the browser space. Simply put, browser games are any titles that are accessed through one’s mobile web browser, rather than through a downloadable mobile app from the App Store or Google Play Store. Certain variants of these games have long concentrated development on their mobile-optimised web offerings, of which the leading example is iGaming.
From daily fantasy sports, to online casinos – iGaming is one of the fastest growing and best established mobile game genres in the world today, and this is no different in South Africa. In light of this, dedicated platforms like Vegasslotsonline ZA have increasingly risen to prominence in the region. By offering competitive welcome offers and other sign-up bonuses to South African casino aficionados, platforms such as these contribute meaningfully to the sector’s ongoing organic growth domestically.
Mobile Esports
The past few years has come to be known as the ‘esports boom’ among competitive gaming circles, reflecting the recent surge in popularity and interest around well known esports games like League of Legends and Counter Strike: Global Offensive. While these examples are PC games, this excitement and vested interest is having a knock-on effect in the mobile space.
Accordingly, mobile esports like PUBG Mobile, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang and Free Fire are now among the fastest growing esports across any platform in both South Africa and beyond.
