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Middle East North Africa Games Market

  • Report

  • 125 Pages
  • January 2022
  • Region: Africa, Middle East
  • Niko Partners, Inc.
  • ID: 5521292

The MENA-3 (Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Egypt) game's revenue was $1.76 billion in 2021, rising to $3.14 billion in 2025 at a 5-year CAGR of 13.8%.

What you'll learn from this report:

This is the first major report covering the MENA (Middle East North Africa) region. The MENA games market has quickly emerged as a key growth region for the global video game industry.

To provide a representative overview of Arabic-speaking markets, the report focuses on what the publisher calls the MENA-3: Saudi Arabia (KSA), the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Egypt.

The report includes a comprehensive market model and 5-year forecast through 2025 by games segment, key data on game publishers, games rankings, growth drivers, and trends. This includes details on esports, product distribution, payments, financial transaction events, regulations, and qualitative and quantitative analysis on gamer demand, spending, and behavior, with gamer behavior based on a survey of 3,000 gamers. Spotlights on the Gulf States, North Africa, and Jordan are also included.

Key takeaways from the analysis:

  • MENA-3 games revenue was $1.76 billion in 2021, rising to $3.14 billion in 2025 at a 5-year CAGR of 13.8%.
  • MENA-3 gamers reached 65.32 million in 2021, rising to 85.76 million in 2025.
  • Saudi Arabia is the gaming powerhouse of Arabic-speaking nations in MENA, balancing population size with high spending power yielding the highest revenue.
  • The UAE is representative of smaller Gulf states. Arabic is the official language, yet the population is predominately expatriated.
  • Egypt is an emerging games market with an active and competitive gaming community and MENA-3’s largest market by gamers.
  • Growth will be driven by higher spending per user, additional government support across games and esports, and more gamers entering the market.
  • Nearly half of the MENA population is under 25 years old and have grown up as digital natives with gaming playing a huge role in their entertainment.
  • Governments in the region are supportive of the video game sector. Saudi Arabia and the UAE have introduced policies to encourage game localization, local game development, new studios and offices of international game companies, and hosting major esports tournaments.

What’s included:

  • A comprehensive market model and 5-year forecast through 2025 by games segment
  • Qualitative and quantitative analysis on gamer demand, behavior, and usage for mobile, PC, and console games, hardware, and accessories
  • Growth drivers and trends
  • Top games and game rankings
  • Game publishers
  • Gamer demand, spending, influences, and behavior
  • Distribution
  • Payments
  • Esports
  • Hardware and accessories
  • Icafes
  • Regulations
  • Financial transaction events
  • Analysis of our proprietary survey of 3,000 MENA gamers
  • 125 slides

Table of Contents

1. Executive Summary
  • Market Size and Forecast
  • Growth Drivers
  • Growth Inhibitors
  • Saudi Arabia Overview
  • Saudi Arabia Market Size and Forecast
  • United Arab Emirates Overview
  • United Arab Emirates Market Size and Forecast
  • Egypt Overview
  • Egypt Market Size and Forecast
  • GCC Spotlight
  • North Africa Spotlight
  • Jordan Spotlight
  • NEOM Saudi Arabia Spotlight
  • Demographics
  • Gaming Time
  • Saudi Arabia Entertainment Activities (non-gaming)
  • UAE Entertainment Activities
  • Egypt Entertainment Activities
2. Mobile Games
  • Overview
  • Market Model
  • Market Trends
  • Top Games
  • Saudi Arabia
  • UAE
  • Egypt
  • Top Mobile Games Publishers
  • Saudi Arabia
  • UAE
  • Egypt
  • Time Spent
  • Top Games and Genres
  • User Acquisition
  • Spending
  • Payments
  • Type of IAP Items Purchased
  • Attitudes Towards Advertising
  • Purchase Influences and Drivers
  • Most Disliked Aspects
  • Hardware and Emulators
3. PC Games
  • Overview
  • Market Model
  • Market Trends
  • Top Games and Publishers
  • Saudi Arabia
  • UAE
  • Egypt
  • Time Spent
  • Top Genres
  • Top Games
  • Spending
  • Payments
  • Game Purchase Influences and Drivers
  • Types of Items Purchased in Game
  • In-Game Purchase Influences and Drivers
  • Type of PC Owned
  • Internet Cafe & PC Hardware
  • Hours Spent Playing by Location
  • Reasons for Icafe Gaming
4. Console Games
  • Overview
  • Market Model
  • Market Trends
  • Top Games and Publishers
  • Saudi Arabia
  • UAE
  • Egypt
  • Time Spent
  • Type of Console Owned
  • Console Plan to Purchase
  • Console Game Information Sources
  • Console Game Spending
  • Number of Console Games Purchased
  • Gaming Subscription Services
5. Esports & Live Streaming
  • Esports & Live Streaming in Saudi Arabia
  • Esports & Live Streaming in UAE
  • Esports & Live Streaming in Egypt
  • Viewers
  • Interest in Going Professional
  • Live Streaming Viewing
  • Live Streaming Platforms Viewed
6. Localization
7. Payments
  • Saudi Arabia Payments
  • UAE Payments
  • Egypt Payments
8. Regulations & Infrastructure
  • Saudi Arabia Regulatory Overview
  • Saudi Arabia GCAM Overview
  • Saudi Arabia Infrastructure & Networks
  • UAE Regulatory Overview
  • UAE Infrastructure & Networks
  • Egypt Regulatory Overview
  • Egypt Infrastructure & Networks
9. Appendix

Companies Mentioned

  • Activision
  • Applovin Corp
  • Arab Hardware
  • Azur Interactive Games
  • BabyBus Group
  • Bandai Namco
  • Capcom
  • CD Projekt Red
  • Du
  • Electronic Arts
  • Embracer Group
  • Epic Games
  • Etisalat
  • FunPlus
  • Gameberry Labs
  • Garena(Sea)
  • Good Job Games
  • IGG
  • IGN
  • Innersloth
  • Inwi
  • Konami Digital Entertainment
  • Kooapps
  • Krafton
  • Lilith Games
  • Microsoft
  • Miniclip
  • Moonton
  • Nexon
  • ONEMT
  • Orange
  • Outfit7
  • Playrix
  • Riot Games
  • Roblox corporation
  • Rockstar Games
  • SayGames
  • Sensor Tower
  • Smilegate
  • SNK Corp
  • Sony
  • STC
  • Stillfront Group
  • SuperCell
  • SUPERSONIC Studios
  • Take-Two
  • Tamatem Games
  • Tap2play
  • Tencent
  • TOP Games
  • Topwar Studio
  • Ubisoft
  • Valve (Steam)
  • Virgin
  • Vodafone
  • Voodoo
  • Yalla Technology
  • Zain Group
  • Zhipin Network
  • Zynga