According to MWEB, a South African ISP, gaming has “quietly mushroomed” under gamers feet. Its first ever gaming report tells us what the top online games are, and which digital downloads both globally and internationally are making its mark on the South African gaming scene. And its games in the top spots below that have pushed the online gaming industry in South Africa to R1.29-billion.
An African tale
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The first statistics come from digital download platform GamersGate, based in Scandinavia, with MWEB having a local mirror of the content server in South Africa. GamersGate is as local as Steam, as MWEB hosts two Steam mirrors in both Johannesburg and Cape Town.
The top games based on sales for 28 October — 4 November 2012 include Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena at number one, Dead Island at four, Dark Souls at nine and Alone in the Dark at 10. Riddick‘s high position is surprising, as the game is three years old. Despite this, it’s still a robust shooter and one of the most atmospheric games of its generation. Here’s the full list of top-selling games.
- Chronicles of Riddick Assault on Dark Athena
- Elven Legacy Collection
- King’s Bounty: Crossworlds Game of the Year Edition
- Dead Island
- Numen: Contest of Heroes
- GTR Evolution Expansion
- Deadly 30
- Bridge Constructor
- Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition
- Alone in the Dark
Online is exploding
Whereas the country’s bandwidth was once so poor that playing online with decent speeds was but a dream, multiplayer gaming is now a lag-free pleasure. In this vein, the number of international online gamers has also “quietly mushroomed” and the games below are the most popular titles there.
- Dota 2 with a peak of 138 420 players
- Football Manager 2013 with a peak of 57 713 players
- Counter-Strike with a peak of 52 894 players
- Team Fortress 2 with a peak of 50 108 players
- Counter-Strike Source with a peak of 36 395 players
No word yet if the quiet mushroom has made its way to the Playstation Network.
