The MENA region’s game revenue was valued at $1.78 billion in 2021, and it’s now considered to be a key growth region for the global video games industry.
How exactly did we land here, though?
The evolution of the video game industry in Jordan specifically can be traced back to 2003, when Maysalward, the very first mobile game studio in the region, was founded in the Middle East. The now-thriving studio achieved success through a Jordan-based team that focused on merging localisation and culturalisation to the local audience with cooperation with European game studios.
Today, the MENA region’s domestic market is the fastest growing in the world, tauting over 377 million estimated players – this is almost as many gamers as all of Europe combined (386 million) and much more than America (210 million). Along with this booming global success, there’s more and more local development talent sprouting in the area and creating for the local players, with Tamatem, one of Jordan’s leading developers that was founded just in 2013, now having a total value of over $80 million while specialising in localising internationally renowned games to suit Arabic-speaking users.
The growth in this region is beyond impressive, and it’s expected to reach new heights – a recent report suggests the MENA games market reach more than $5 billion by 2025, with a majority of this growth fuelled by increased spending by current gamers, time spent in-game by users and surging advertising revenue according to the report by RedSeer. This is being linked back to a growing interest from consumers that are typically underserved in the region, spanning various demographics such as females and Gen X, as well as the overall gaming market boom provided by the pandemic over the past few years. Another report by Business Wire also believes that growth will also be driven by higher spending per user, and additionally attributes government support across games and esports.
Governments in the MENA region are particularly supportive of the video games sector, with Saudi Arabia and the UAE having introduced policies to encourage game localisation, local game development, new studios and offices of international game companies and hosting major esports tournaments to encourage growth in the sector. This support is palpable with the massive growth and success experienced by new and emerging studios, and it’s part of why it’s so essential for developers and investors to keep an eye on this region.
The games sector in the MENA region is only growing, and Jordan is at the very heart of it all – joining in on making essential connections with the leading players in this area is going to make a world of a difference when it comes to doing business here, and there’s no place to do it like Pocket Gamer Connects Jordan this November 12-13.
