A new emerging industry in the tech world is the Gaming industry, it is worth USD 152.1 billion today, and it has covered over 2.3 billion consumers worldwide. These modern consumers have spent over USD 50 billion in 2020 alone. Just not the US, The gaming industry has touched the South African community as well, influencing and accommodating over 11 million gamers from the country.

The exciting prospect of the South African Gaming Industry

Smartphones are a worldwide trend and necessary, and this is boosting the prospect of online gaming in South Africa. According to a PricewaterhouseCoopers study from 2017, the gaming industry in South Africa generated approximately $208 million in revenue that year. However, this barely amounts to 2.37% of the total amount spent on entertainment in South Africa in a single year.

According to the research, the digital video games sector is South Africa’s biggest success story in the entertainment business. The explosion in smartphone users and mobile internet is mainly responsible for the growth. An intriguing fact about the country is that higher educational institutions provide degrees and train students about online gaming activities such as eSports. They are primarily concerned with establishing a framework for teaching game design and computer game development.

The South African Cultural Observatory conducted a study to analyse the growth potential for the International market of the gaming industry, and they discovered that South Africa’s market share of the gaming sector is still significantly less than that of other countries. However, international demand for their content continuously grows, allowing the South African game industry to prosper. They foresee that the video game market will be worth 5.44 billion within the year 2023.

The challenges faced by the Gaming Industry in South Africa

The primary challenge faced by the gaming industry in South Africa is that the infrastructure just hasn’t been developed enough to give a stable career path for everyone. Given South Africa’s background, it appears that only people who can buy devices and often have grown up playing video games, are the ones who can sustain themselves playing games.

Another factor contributing to this issue is the current gaming meta, which is free to play. The game creators’ business approach is to release early versions of the game for free, giving customers an experience of what the game is like. Later, when the game grows in popularity and exposure, they either withdraw free-to-play versions or add features that require consumers to purchase the game. Nevertheless, the South African online gaming market, including well-established sites like Betway SA who are part of the world-famous Betway brand, is doing well and does not appear to be slowing down anytime soon, given the brand’s strong reputation.

Further advancements and possibilities for the industry

South Africa’s game industry is more than just for amusement. SAG, which stands for Serious About Games, is a movement in South Africa. This movement is all about promoting online gaming as a tool for social change and education. While the games in this movement appear to be video games, they go far more than that.

Online games are being used to assist in developing artificial intelligence to be appointed in the future for more significant purposes. As technologies such as robotics and virtual reality progress, it appears that they will trigger additional changes in the gaming industry in the following years.