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Of the numerous markets discovered all through the African continent, South Africa is – as we mentioned with the organisers of Africa Games week – one of the crucial outstanding. Therefore our week-long editorial particular devoted to its games industry.
Whereas we’ll be exploring the event scene in depth, it is price starting with a take a look at the games industry in basic, together with the scale of the viewers and the income it generates, for which we have consulted market analysis agency Newzoo.
We have additionally scoured by way of a 2021 report by Tshimologong Wits University to get a clearer sense of the developer panorama.
The games market
2023 income: $266 million
Common participant spend every year: $25.50
Final 12 months, South Africa accounted for about $266 million in video games spending, in response to Newzoo. To place this in a world context, that is 0.14% of the $184 billion the information agency estimated was spent on video games worldwide final 12 months.
Nevertheless, Newzoo emphasised the continued progress of the South African market, at a Compound Annual Progress Charge of 4.7% since 2020. Additionally it is anticipated to proceed rising to $333 million by 2026, a CAGR of seven.8%.
Cellular represented the overwhelming majority of games spending in South Africa in 2023, accounting for 91% of income. PC is barely extra profitable than consoles at 5% of complete spending vs 4%.
The common participant spent simply over $25 per 12 months on games final 12 months, totally on in-game microtransactions given the recognition of cellular titles.
Newzoo reported that the preferred console and PC games in 2023, in phrases of month-to-month energetic customers, have been as follows:
- Fortnite
- The Sims 4
- Name of Obligation: Fashionable Warfare 3 (2023)
- Minecraft
- Roblox
The viewers
Whole variety of gamers: 26.5 million
Proportion of inhabitants that performs video games: 44%
Gender cut up of gamers: 53% males vs 46% girls
Newzoo instructed us that 26.5 million individuals in South Africa performed video games final 12 months, exhibiting a CAGR of 5.4% since 2020. The firm estimated this accounts for 44% of the nation’s inhabitants.
85% of those gamers have performed a cellular recreation throughout the previous six months, whereas solely 15% have performed a console title.
The gender cut up is alleged to be 53% male, 46% feminine throughout the gaming inhabitants.
The majority of the viewers is aged 14 to twenty-eight, accounting for nearly half (47.6%) of the gaming inhabitants. The subsequent largest demographic is barely older (29 to 42) at 30.8%. Youngsters of 10-years-old or youthful account for 12.1% of the gaming inhabitants.
As with different markets, watching livestreamed games content material by way of platforms similar to Twitch is more and more common, with 64% of the gaming inhabitants tuning into this content material often. That is extra common with males, who account for 57% of the viewership, in comparison with girls at 42%. 61% of South African players each play games and watch gaming content material on-line.
Newzoo famous that viewership “closely favours” these 14 to 28-year-olds, which accounted for 36% of the viewers for livestreams, and 10 to 13-year-olds, which accounted for 33%. 29 to 42-year-olds, in the meantime, account for simply 20%.
The gaming viewers is predicted to develop in the approaching years, with Newzoo forecasting 30.2 million gamers by 2026, a CAGR of 4.3% from 2023. This can nonetheless symbolize 44% of the South African inhabitants.
The industry
An extensive study by Tshimologong Wits University explored the games improvement panorama of South Africa in 2021. The institute carried out a census in which 168 individuals with totally different roles in the industry participated.
The college mentioned this possible accounts for 38% of the South African games workforce based mostly on participation in a 2018 survey by commerce physique IESA. Among the many respondents have been 52 self-identified hobbyists and 18 college students, however the overwhelming majority of what follows is predicated on the professionals’ responses.
The studios
The examine estimated there are 60 energetic games studios in South Africa. The majority of those have been described as microenterprises (fewer than 5 workers), with Tshimologong Wits College noting that the majority of those firms have been comprised solely of their founders with no extra workers.
Of the 60 studios, solely six employed greater than ten individuals – based mostly on our exploration of the South African games industry, this would come with Free Lives, Nyamakop, Sea Monster and 24 Bit Games, and you’ll learn full interviews with these all through the week.
The six bigger studios accounted for almost all of the income generated by South African builders. The largest studio Tshimologong Wits College visited employed 36 individuals on the time.
Whereas the vast majority of gamers favour cellular games, the big studios have been mentioned to “do little to no work” in that sector, as an alternative specializing in PC and console to generate the vast majority of their income. 55% of all South African studios have been growing games for PC, in comparison with 33% for cellular.
There have been some companies firms that labored on cellular titles, however no South African games firm was constructed solely round cellular improvement or generated the vast majority of their revenues from apps, in response to the examine.
52% of studios that responded created their very own IP, whereas 12% solely supplied companies to different games firms, and 36% did a mixture of each.
South African games spending is predicted to proceed rising to $333m by 2026
Unity was by far the preferred engine amongst South African recreation builders, with over 90% of studios utilizing it as their major tech.
When it comes to location, Cape City and Johannesburg have been house to probably the most studios. The Gauteng province, which incorporates Johannesburg, hosted 42.1% of the South African games firms that responded, whereas the Western Cape province, which incorporates Cape City, was house to 37.9%.
The unfold of the workforce was pretty related. 50.5% of games professionals lived in the Western Cape, whereas 37.4% lived in Gauteng.
Curiously, 14.1% of all respondents mentioned they labored for an organization based mostly exterior of South Africa, and most of those lived in Western Cape. The examine famous that the COVID-19 pandemic and the shift in the direction of working from house led to a “dramatic improve” in the variety of native builders discovering employment at worldwide firms.
The workforce
21% of the professionals working in the South Africa industry had carried out so for over ten years on the time of the survey, with Tshimologong Wits College noting that this was an indication of the industry maturing in comparison with previous information.
25% had been working in games for between 5 and ten years, whereas 20% had labored three to 5 years and one other 20% had labored one to 3 years, illustrating how comparatively new the South African games industry is. Simply 5% – one in 20 individuals – have been lower than six months into their games profession.
Two-thirds of respondents have been 35 years outdated or youthful. The largest age bracket was 26 to 30-year-olds at 25%, with 21 to 25 and 36 to 40 each at 21%. Solely 12% of pros have been 41 or older, with only one% being over the age of 51.
There’s a stark distinction between the variety of the games workforce in comparison with the overall inhabitants. Whereas a 2022 census confirmed solely 7.3% of South Africa’s inhabitants was white, 82% of the games professionals featured in Tshimologong Wits College’s examine have been white.
Black individuals, who accounted for 81.4% of the inhabitants in 2022, solely represented 6% of the examine’s respondents – a determine the college described as “distressingly low.” 7% of respondents have been Asian (in contrast with 2.7% of the inhabitants), whereas 5% have been Coloureds (in comparison with 8.2%).
The South African industry’s variety was a recurring subject in our interviews, as you may see all through this week, with Studio Bolland’s managing director Richard Bolland as an illustration noting: “Our nation is absolutely solely 30 years outdated this 12 months, as a democracy, which means that basically non-white those who have been born in 1994 are turning 30 this 12 months and are actually simply nonetheless younger professionals who’re getting into into the market. And so we nonetheless discover that those that had entry to computer systems and the web rising up are nonetheless predominantly white, and due to this fact individuals who have probably the most expertise, if you happen to take a look at seniors in the games improvement industry in South Africa, [are] predominantly male, white individuals.”
However he emphasised that there was “an energetic understanding and want for change from these in management in this South African recreation scene” with the industry “actively incentivising individuals of color to achieve expertise and management positions.” You possibly can learn our full interview with Studio Bolland on Wednesday.
14.1% of all respondents mentioned they labored for an organization based mostly exterior of South Africa
Again to the Tshimologong Wits College examine, and the outcomes even delved into individuals’s upbringing, which it described as a “key indicator of accessibility to the workforce,” noting {that a} “disproportionate quantity” grew up in upper-middle-class to upper-class environments.
For instance, whereas the most important phase (38.5%) went to a non-selective, state-run college, 33.3% attended an unbiased or non-public college with out the necessity for a bursary or scholarship. Solely 3.1% of games professionals went by way of non-public training supported by bursaries and scholarships.
In the meantime, 83% of games professionals in South Africa recognized as male, in comparison with 10% feminine, and seven% non-binary. The examine additionally requested respondents if their gender was the identical because the one assigned to them at start as a method of figuring out the variety of transgender individuals in the workforce. 6% of respondents indicated they’re transgender.
Tshimologong reported that, in comparison with historic information, there had been a “slight enchancment” in the variety of girls and non-white individuals employed in the industry, however the majority of this was attributed to the bigger studios. A lot of the microenterprises consisted solely of white males.
24% of South Africa’s games professionals recognized as LGBTQIA2S+, which the examine famous was “considerably greater than the nationwide common.”
Greater than half of the respondents (57%) have been employed in improvement and programming, though it is price noting that, as a result of most studios are small, individuals usually fulfil a number of roles in their studios. Actually, ten totally different disciplines acquired responses from greater than 10% of the pattern, and solely 36% of these surveyed indicated that that they had a single position. Tshimologong Wits College prompt that the necessity for a number of competencies introduces a barrier to employment.
Exterior of programming and improvement, the most typical roles have been artwork (41%), design (40%), enterprise operations (32%), and challenge administration (30%). Gross sales, advertising and marketing and communications accounted for 17% of the workforce, writing and audio for 12% every. Solely 9% indicated that they had a job in QA, with IT the bottom at 4%.
Additionally of word is that solely half the respondents (49.5%) have been full-time everlasting workers. 14.1% have been full-time however on fastened time period contracts, whereas 10.1% have been freelancers. Emphasising the prominence of self-run, single-person builders, 25.3% indicated they have been a studio proprietor or director.
The future expertise
The entire above from the Tshimologong Wits College examine applies to professionals. When hobbyists, 69% mentioned they want to work in the games industry on a extra everlasting foundation.
Nevertheless, they confronted a number of limitations; specifically that they may earn extra in different industries, there have been inadequate jobs or alternatives inside games, and so they did not imagine that they had the satisfactory expertise.
75% of the hobbyist respondents indicated they labored in software program improvement, with the subsequent most typical industry being animation (12.8%).
All through this week, we’ll be exploring South Africa’s games industry additional in a sequence of interviews with a spread of studios – together with Six Peaks, Nyamakop, Sea Monster, Free Lives, Studio Bolland, and Annapurna-owned 24 Bit Games.
These conversations cowl a spread of matters, together with a few of the greatest challenges builders face in South Africa, the talk across the assist accessible to games companies, and what might drive the market’s progress in future years. It is possible for you to to seek out all of those interviews right here because the week progresses.
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