A new report on game consumption in French-speaking African countries such as Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire and Cameroon shows a clear preference for free-to-play games in an Android-dominated ecosystem. The report shows that more than 80% of respondents in these three countries use Android phones, with Cameroon having a particularly high proportion, with 96% of respondents owning Android devices. Senegal, on the other hand, is the country with the most iOS users, with 19% of respondents owning an iPhone.
Most players in Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire and Cameroon prefer to play offline games, accounting for 57%. This is particularly true in Cameroon, where 66% of respondents play offline games. Côte d'Ivoire (57% offline gamers) and Senegal (54% offline gamers) are more balanced.
More than 40% of respondents have downloaded fewer than five games in the past 12 months. 28% of respondents have downloaded 5 to 10 games.
Judging from the consumption habits of these three countries, Côte d'Ivoire is the region where the most players are willing to spend money on games, accounting for 57%. This dropped to 52% in Cameroon and 40% in Senegal.
Looking at the game modes most preferred by players, free games are the top choice, whether they are games with ads (the average across the three countries is 34%, with Senegal having the highest share at 45%), or ad-free games with paid options (29%). This is followed by subscription models (24%) and ad-free paid games (12%).
When asked about the latest games they have played, the most common answers were EAS Sports FC, Call of Duty, FreeFire, Dice King, and Temple Run.
The vast majority of respondents (more than 60%) have never played a game developed in Africa. Over 80% said the reason they did not do so was that they had never heard of African gaming.
The survey was conducted by GameHub Senegal from July 21 to August 28, 2023, and interviewed 785 people, with a fairly even number of respondents across the three countries (254 in Senegal, 255 in Côte d'Ivoire, and 276 in Cameroon). There was a high proportion of men participating in the survey, with approximately 80% of respondents being male.