MENA market hits 7.9 billion downloads and $1.78 billion revenue in H1 2024

• The top-grossing games categories on iOS in MENA were action (20.22%), strategy (13.94%), and casual (11.52%)
• On Google Play, strategy games led with 22.46%, followed by action (16.28%) and role-playing (15.13%)

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The MENA market achieved over 7.9 billion downloads and more than $1.78 billion in revenue in the first half of 2024. The half-on-half (HoH) revenue growth was 10.6%, and the year-over-year (YoY) increase was 15.6%. 

This is according to a new Spotlight on MENA report from data firm Apptica which shows that downloads saw positive growth, with a HoH increase of 8.2% and a YoY increase of 11.1%. The MENA region accounted for 7.5% of global downloads and 3.6% of revenue.

PUBG Mobile leads games downloads in MENA, followed by Roblox and Subway Surfers. Pizza Ready! is a new top contender amongst casual games like Yalla Ludo. PUBG Mobile also leads revenue in MENA, followed by Roblox and Whiteout Survival. Match-3 games and Battle Royale titles are also popular.

Roblox, PUBG Mobile, and Subway Surfers lead in Daily Active Users (DAU) in MENA, with over 2 million, 5 million, and 1.5 million DAUs respectively. Other popular titles include EA Sports (over 2 million), Candy Crush (over 2 million), and Clash of Clans (over 1 million).

Outperforming global markets

Within MENA, Egypt leads with 27% of regional revenue and 43% of instals, showing the highest YoY revenue growth at 34%. However, in terms of downloads, Iran currently has the most significant growth with an 18.5% increase followed by the UAE (+16.9%), Saudi Arabia (+12.5%), and Kuwait (+12%).

MENA countries outperformed major global markets in growth including India (+9.2% downloads), Brazil (+8.9%), and the USA (+6.9% revenue), with the USA seeing a 11.4% revenue increase and China 7.5%. By the end of 2024, mobile app downloads in MENA are expected to exceed 16 billion, with revenue surpassing $3.5 billion.

Gaming saw a 11% YoY increase in revenue and 6% in downloads. Entertainment grew by 34% in revenue and 10% in downloads. Social apps, despite a slight 1.2% drop in revenue, had an 11.4% increase in downloads.

Revenue leaders in MENA by app stores

In H1 2024, Casual games led in downloads across all App Store regions, but on Google Play simulation games were the top category in Europe and Africa. In the MENA region, the top three categories on iOS by downloads were casual (19.25%), action (15.42%), and simulation (14.43%). On Android, the rankings were slightly different: casual (15.37%), simulation (13.77%), and action (13%).

In terms of revenue, the top-grossing categories on iOS in MENA were action (20.22%), strategy (13.94%), and casual (11.52%). On Google Play, strategy games led with 22.46%, followed by action (16.28%) and role-playing (15.13%). Gaming apps represented 20.9% of total revenue on iOS and 58.6% on Android, indicating that Apple users spend more on applications overall, while Google Play users spend more on games.

Revenue growth by genre

In H1 2024, Google Play emerged as the top-grossing platform and led in instals across all sub-genres. Core games were more profitable on Android, while casual games had higher revenues on iOS, contrary to the global trend where core games lead on both platforms. 

Casual games saw a 6.8% HoH revenue increase on iOS, while core games grew by 20.3% HoH on Google Play. YoY, Casual games grew by 11.5% on iOS, and core games by 30.7% on Android. 

Hypercasual games experienced a decline in downloads, with a 11% HoH drop on iOS and a 21% YoY drop, although Android saw a 10.8% YoY growth. Hybridcasual games significantly outperformed hypercasual in revenue, with iOS showing a 2.2 times increase and Android a 6.2 times increase.

In H1 2024, the top categories by downloads in MENA were tools (1.19 billion), communication (699.07 million), and productivity (449.05 million), with finance being the least downloaded (184.92 million). These categories collectively accounted for 7.9 billion downloads.

You can read the full Spotlight on MENA report here.