Free Fire Shows Strong Momentum, with Its Revenue Overtaking PUBG Mobile in a Single Market for Q1 2021

In terms of revenue, PUBG Mobile, Sword of Wonder, and 101 Okey Plus were the top three grossing games in March. Rounding out the top 10 are games such as Age of Kingdom, Call of Duty: Mobile, Mobile Legends, State of Survival, and Pocket Raiders.

An Overview of the Middle East Games Market

There are more than 100 million Internet users in 22 countries in the Middle East, but most of the paying users are in the Gulf, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and other wealthy countries. Saudi Arabia has 25 million Internet users, and Turkey has more than 62 million.

With a game market of about $900 million, Turkey is currently the largest one in the Middle East. According to the DotC, Turkey accounts for about 40 percent of the game market in the Middle East, with more than 40 million mobile players. With a larger population than any other country in Europe, Turkey should be the most demographic game market in the Middle East.

Gamers in the Gulf, including Saudi Arabia, are generally willing to pay for games (ARPU is expected to reach $38 this year) and have a lot of spending power and leisure time (though not as much). With 70% of players in the Middle East under 25, there is a huge potential in the future. 

The UAE is the third largest market in the Middle East, with a game market of around $300 million, much smaller than Turkey and Saudi Arabia.

On the other hand, the mobile game market is basically dominated by Chinese and European games due to the weak R&D strength and weak competition of local manufacturers in the Middle East. But there are barriers to entry in the Middle East because of religion, payments, traffic and language.

In terms of game types, players in the Middle East generally accept European and American realistic style games and like strategy games, while gambling games also occupy a certain market share.