As part of a concerted effort to gain a better understanding of the mobile gaming landscape, GIA has partnered with AppMagic (a mobile market intelligence service) to track and share sales data on the African games industry.

As part of that ongoing collaboration, we’ve looked back at the top performing mobile apps in Algeria, Egypt, South Africa and Nigeria to understand what games generated the most revenue and if available, what local content appealed to each country’s player base in 2022.

Disclaimers – As is the case with most Western based intelligence and research companies, there exists a challenge gathering and tracking sales across the continent.

Additionally, data currently only exists for four countries (Algeria, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa) and is a combination of revenue from iOS and Google Play.

Despite all attempts to keep the data exclusively to gaming (no real money applications), some data sets unfortunately feature some unwanted entries.

2022 Revisited

Unsurprisingly, a lot of non African developed applications dominate the Top Free and Top Grossing charts. Both Subway Surfers and Candy Crush feature prominently across all charts and helps showcase the global appeal of the hyper casual juggernauts.

ALGERIA

Comparatively, Algeria isn’t a hotbed for mobile developers seeking to capitalize on IAP, but it does enough to warrant some level of investment, with the likes of Tencent, Roblox, Garena and Netmarble. PUBG Mobile, Clash of Kings and Free Fire: 6th Anniversary make up the top three grossing apps with PUBG accounting for about $158k.

Intriguingly, casual games dominate the Top Free apps section. even more fascinatingly, seeing the likes of Fashion Show: Makeup, Dress Up and Hair Tattoo: Barber Shop Game prop up the top ten puts paid to the theory only one kind of demographic or style of game can really penetrate the gaming populace.

EGYPT

Once again, the value of an established IP and a huge user acquisiton budget sees Subway Surfers, Candy Crush Saga feature amongst the top performing apps. PUBG Mobile, Candy Crush Saga and Yalla Ludo – Ludo&Domino make up the top three grossing apps with PUBG Mobile generating over $4M.

Just like the Algerian top charts, it highlights the popularity of real life sporting titles which have been translated into a mobile variant and includes Ludo Club – Dice & Board Game, Going Balls, Bridge Race, Domino Cafe and 8 Ball Pool.

NIGERIA

Whilst the Top 10 Grossing apps featured the usual suspects of Call of Duty: Mobile, Candy Crush Saga and PUBG Mobile, the top app gnerated almost $800k over the year. Nigeria which has a love affair with football and a growing esports scene sees two titles within that sport feature in the top grossing charts.

However, it’s in the Top Free charts that we see the first couple of local developers. Waje Game-enjoy whot game takes the eighth spot whilst Naija Ludo, which is developed by Tonielrosoft slots in at the tenth spot. Tonielrosoft is the brain child of Tony Tonielro who founded and has helmed the Jos based company for over 9 years.

SOUTH AFRICA

From a revenue generating perspective, South Africa dwarfs its African contemporaries with Candy Crush Saga generating over $7M in 2022. Ahead of Coin Master and Roblox, which generated $5.3M and $3M respectively. It also illustrates the willingness of players to invest on their digital entertainment.