Have you been relying on video games to power you through the pandemic? So have mns of others in MENA. It’s become a familiar scenario over the past two years. Work’s done and you want to unwind, but soaring covid case numbers discourage going out. At home, you have snacks and Halo Infinite’s finally been released. For many of us, the choice is simple — video games.

We’ve got news for you, gamers. You’re not alone: Throughout the world, gaming activity increased by an estimated 46% in 2020, with mobile gaming specifically growing by 17%, according to a mid-2021 report by Orient Planet Research and G&K Consulting. This was largely driven by covid-19 lockdowns and stay-at-home directives, the report notes.

Global gaming has become a huge industry. In 2020, it was worth over USD 160 bn annually, with the global gaming community set to exceed 2.7 bn people by the end of the year, according to a Forbes contributor. The global number of players was up 5.3% y-o-y in mid-2020, according to the 2020 Global Games Market Report produced by market intelligence firm Newzoo.

And MENA’s been one of its fastest-growing markets: As of mid-2020, the MENA games market accounted for 3% of global market revenue, having grown 14.5% y-o-y to be worth USD 5.4 bn. At the time, it had some 377 mn players, the Newzoo report revealed.

Regionally, mobile gamers far outnumber PC or console gamers: Mobile gaming is the largest gaming market in the region, thanks to relatively high smartphone penetration, the abundance of free-to-play games, and internet infrastructure that’s strong in KSA and the UAE, and improving in Egypt, reports tech news hub GamesBeat. Among Egyptian gamers surveyed for a 2020 YouGov report, only an estimated 14% played on consoles, compared to 58% who used a smartphone or tablet. In KSA, 20% played on consoles compared to 52% on mobiles, and in the UAE, 21% played on consoles compared to 57% on mobiles, YouGov noted.

In fact, mobile gaming grew in MENA by an estimated 25% in 2020, and was expected to reach USD 4.4 bn by 2022, according to the OPR-G&K report picked up by Trade Arabia. It was worth an estimated USD 1.06 bn in 2016.

“MENA represents a key [window] for the video game industry,” said Daniel Ahmad, senior analyst at market research and consulting firm Niko Partners, in a recent email to GamesBeat. “The region has often flown under the radar due to its small game development scene, fragmented markets as well as language and cultural barriers, but it has quickly become a region of importance.”

Within MENA, Egypt, the UAE, and KSA “are on the frontier of this growth due to housing the highest populations of gamers,” Ziad Samaha, VP New Business at the UAE’s Khazna Data Centers wrote in computer magazine PCMag last month.

New data shows the three countries are set to remain the region’s major players: In Egypt, KSA, and the UAE alone, the gaming market could be worth an estimated USD 3.14 bn by 2025 — up from USD 1.76 bn in 2021, according to Niko Partners. The number of gamers in these three countries is set to rise to 85.76 mn in 2025, up from 65.32 mn in 2021, notes the firm. Its new report on MENA’s gaming sector aims to “provide a representative overview of Arabic speaking markets,” focusing on Egypt, KSA, and the UAE — which it calls the MENA-3.

It all translates into hefty revenue: Collective revenue from video games in Egypt, KSA, and the UAE reached USD 1.7 bn in 2021, according to Niko Partners. Egypt accounted for 9.8% of that revenue, while KSA made up 60.6% and the UAE 29.6%. By 2025, it could rise to USD 3.14 bn, at a 5-year CAGR of 13.8%, the report estimates.

Egypt has by far the highest absolute number of gamers out of the MENA-3: Collectively, approximately 65 mn gamers in Egypt, KSA and the UAE were active in 2021, the Niko Partners report tells us. Some 38 mn of those gamers — 59% — were in Egypt, while 20 mn — 30% — were in KSA, and 7 mn — 11% — were in the UAE. Egypt is “an emerging games market with an active and competitive gaming community,” it adds.

But on average, gamers in Egypt are spending only a fraction of what our regional peers are forking out: On average, a gamer in Egypt spends USD 4.5 per year on games, while a gamer in KSA spends USD 53.9 and one in the UAE spends USD 72.5, the Niko Partners report says.

While KSA’s population of some 34.8 mn and high spending power make it “the gaming powerhouse of Arabic-speaking nations in MENA,” according to Niko Partners.

All three countries have seen government support of the gaming industry: Egypt, Saudi, and the UAE have seen policies issued to encourage local game development, new studios and offices of international game companies, and hosting major esports tournaments, the Niko Partners report tells us. “Esports are booming in MENA and a key driver of growth, with Saudi Arabia even including it in its Vision 2030 plan,” Ahmad told GamesBeat. (Esports are human-to-human video gaming competitions that — like real sports — often have a spectator element to them.) Here in Egypt, the Information Technology Institute’s (ITI) Game Development Academy, which was set up in 2010 to provide game development programs, hosted last year a virtual Global Game Jam — a hackathon focused on digital game development.

And MENA’s sizable youth population could also be driving popularity: Nearly 50% of the region’s population are younger than 25, and have “grown up as digital natives with gaming playing a huge role in their entertainment,” notes Niko Partners. Further growth will be driven by higher spending per user, additional government support across games and esports, and more gamers entering the market, the report adds.

Still, keeping up with industry trends requires solid telecoms infrastructure, some note: Reliable, high speed internet connections are key to video game quality, says Samaha. The high-end video gaming industry has capitalized on tech advancements, using impressive graphics, augmented and virtual reality for greater immersion. Dependable service and immense capacity will be needed to deliver these top-quality user experiences — particularly when it comes to esports, Samaha says. Investing in telecommunication — and especially data centers — could be an effective way to build the digital infrastructure that would support this, he argues.

And in Egypt at least, we may still have some way to go on that front: As of January 2021, Egypt had an internet penetration rate of 57.3% and we ranked in the bottom 50% of GSMA Intelligence’s Mobile Connectivity Index, we reported in June 2021. Though Egypt is hoping to capitalize on certain strategic advantages to become a heavyweight in the data center industry, progress has so far been slow, as we noted previously.