Nigeria, South Africa, and Kenya earn $1billion from digital leisure in 2024

Nigeria, South Africa, and Kenya collectively generated over $1 billion in 2024 from stay music ticket gross sales, gaming, and OTT streaming highlighting the continent’s accelerating digital leisure economic system.

That is in accordance toPwC Africa Leisure and Media Outlook 2025–2029 simply launched.

The report attributes this development to Africa’s increasing center class, rising disposable incomes, fast urbanisation, and a younger, related inhabitants hungry for brand spanking new experiences. Publish-pandemic, shoppers are spending extra on leisure, on-line content material, and stay performances, signalling a long-term shift towards entertainment-led consumption.

A breakdown of income by sector 

South Africa stays the area’s leisure powerhouse, incomes throughout stay music, gaming, and OTT streaming:

• Stay music ticket gross sales: $76 million (R1.4 billion), with a 5.9% CAGR projected via 2029.
• Gaming income: $296 million (R5.5 billion), with a 4.6% CAGR.
• OTT streaming: $226 million (R4.2 billion) in 2024, anticipated to succeed in $302 million (R5.6 billion) by 2029 at a 6% CAGR.

Nigeria is quick catching up, propelled by Afrobeats, gaming startups, and on-demand streaming platforms:

• Stay music ticket gross sales: $1 million, with a 1.8% CAGR.
• Gaming income: $176 million, with a 7.4% CAGR the best among the many three.
• OTT streaming: $19 million, projected to develop at an 8.3% CAGR.

Kenya continues to punch above its weight in East Africa, powered by digital-first shoppers and a rising live performance scene:

• Stay music ticket gross sales: $1 million, with a 2.1% CAGR.
• Gaming income: $153 million, with a 6.9% CAGR.
• OTT streaming: $9 million, with an 8.5% CAGR the area’s quickest fee.

What you must know 

Stay and in-person leisure is making a full comeback after pandemic disruptions. South Africa’s pageant circuit that includes extremely–South Africa, Rocking the Daisies, and native icons like Black Espresso continues to draw international audiences. In the meantime, Nigeria and Kenya are investing closely in live performance tradition, leveraging social media promotion and native genres like Amapiano and Afrobeats to drive ticket gross sales.

The gaming trade stays one of many fastest-growing segments, powered by smartphone adoption, improved web entry, and digital funds. South Africa is seeing development in esports and content material creation, whereas Nigeria’s cellular gaming scene attracts international traders. In Kenya, gaming influencers and mobile-first platforms are fuelling fast growth.

Streaming platforms are additionally remodeling Africa’s content material consumption patterns. Native content material methods, mobile-friendly plans, and 4G penetration are serving to OTT platforms retain customers regardless of challenges like excessive knowledge prices and subscription churn.

By 2029, PwC tasks that South Africa, Nigeria, and Kenya will collectively add practically 2 million new OTT subscriptions, with South Africa sustaining over 75% of the regional market share.