MENA
MENA is the one market in this directory that cannot be sized. No free source with a stated methodology puts a number on regional revenue, and the figures in circulation trace to paid vendors or to parties invested in the region's growth. Saudi Arabia, the largest market in scope, claims 23.5 million game enthusiasts, though that is the state's own count and enthusiast is undefined. What can be verified is ownership. The Public Investment Fund bought Scopely for 4.9 billion dollars in 2023 and completed a 55 billion dollar purchase of Electronic Arts in August 2026, and it funds and runs the Esports World Cup in Riyadh. Read English language coverage of this market as promotional until you have checked who paid for it.
Market size
Not recorded
Players
Not recorded
Rough scale only. Every market counts players differently, and MENA and IN have no figure.
Photograph eSports World Cup
Shape
The defining structural layer is sovereign investment. Savvy Games Group, wholly owned by Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund, completed its largest investment to date in July 2023, the 4.9 billion dollar acquisition of the mobile publisher Scopely.
Public Investment Fund newswire, sovereign primary disclosure
Savvy Games Group also carries an announced commitment of 38 billion dollars to games from September 2022 and owns ESL FACEIT Group, and Scopely acquired the Niantic games business including Pokemon GO in 2025.
Naavik analysis of the Savvy portfolio, specialist games analyst
The state has a published national plan for the sector. Saudi Arabia National Gaming and Esports Strategy, launched September 2022, targets 250 games companies, 39,000 jobs, a GDP contribution above 50 billion riyals, and more than 30 locally made games in the global top 300, all by 2030.
Government of Saudi Arabia, Vision 2030 strategy page, state primary source
The demographic base is young. Saudi citizens under 35 comprise 69.4 percent of the Saudi population per 2024 data from the General Authority for Statistics, and the 2022 census puts the national median age at 29.
The region is primarily a buyer and investor rather than a producer. Domestic development capacity is an explicit build objective of the Saudi strategy rather than an existing base. The buyer and investor characterisation is an interpretation resting on the strategy targets and holdings sourced above.
Naavik analysis of the Savvy portfolio, specialist games analyst
Research note
Do not read sovereign investment as domestic market size. Savvy Games Group's 38 billion dollar commitment and its purchases, Scopely for 4.9 billion dollars and ESL FACEIT Group, are outbound investment by the Public Investment Fund, and no free figure sizes Saudi domestic consumer spend to standard; the investment vehicle is tens of billions and the consumption market is not.
PIF corporate newswire, sovereign fund press releases, primary corporate disclosure
Where players talk
Near-total platform saturation in Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia is a platform saturated venue environment. Social media ad audiences approach the total population in early 2025, YouTube ad audience is 27.2 million, about four fifths of the population, and social media user identities skew 61.3 percent male.
Unverified
Do not assert a games venue hierarchy for the Gulf. Which platforms carry Arabic-language games discourse, and the balance between Arabic and English in it, could not be established from citable sources.
Where the data lives
The seven places to open first. The full list of 24 is at the bottom of the page.
PIF newswire
PIF corporate newswire. The sovereign fund own press releases are the primary record of Savvy Games Group deals and games commitments, the source of record for what has actually been announced.
Vision 2030 strategy library
Vision 2030 strategy library, National Gaming and Esports Strategy page. The official statement of Saudi Arabia sector targets, the reference for what the state has committed to build and by when.
GASTAT, Saudi statistics authority
GASTAT, the Saudi General Authority for Statistics. Census, population and youth statistics for the region largest market, including the age structure behind every demographic claim about Saudi players.
Saudi game classification service
Saudi game classification service. The government services entry for GCAM game age classification lets a researcher confirm the statutory rating regime and its administering regulator for Saudi Arabia.
Esports World Cup press room
Esports World Cup Foundation press room. The operator releases give official prize pools, formats, participating clubs and titles for the region flagship event, with self reported audience figures that require independent treatment.
DataReportal Gulf country reports
DataReportal country reports for Gulf states. Free annual compilations of internet and platform ad audience data with published methodology, the least interested source available for venue planning in this region.
The State of Video Gaming (Ball, Epyllion)
The State of Video Gaming, Matthew Ball and Epyllion. A free annual analyst presentation with market sizing, participation and platform charts for most major markets, useful for cross market comparison that no single free source provides. It aggregates many vendors rather than applying one methodology, so treat figures as the analyst assembly they are and cite the underlying source where the deck names one.
People
Communities
r/saudi_gamers
Saudi and pan-Arab player sentiment. One of the few venues in the MENA stack with no institutional or state-linked owner.
r/Iraqigamers
Iraqi player sentiment and memes.
r/EgyptGaming and r/EgyptGaminGG
Egyptian player sentiment across two communities of similar size. Neither is clearly primary from outside, so both are listed.
r/Arabic_Games
Arabic localization discourse, official and fan translations. Small but the only localization venue in this directory.
24 curated sources for MENA
Research it yourself
These rows
2 of 2 sources
| Name | What it lets you find out | Type | Cost | Markets |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Niko Partners (Niko IQ) | The specialist source for China, SEA, and MENA games markets, with informative free summaries. Paid reports are expensive and the free layer is summary-level. Also tracks Chinese publishing licence approvals and explains regulation for outside readers, which pairs with the NPPA primary source. Enterprise pricing is custom. Free blog summaries. | Market research firm | Paid | |
| Power League Gaming (+ PLG × Ipsos studies) | Agency research with Ipsos on KSA/UAE esports and viewing behavior. TikTok LIVE's official gaming broadcast partner for MENA, making it the closest thing to a primary-access creator source in-region. Agency self-interest, and studies are audience-side more than creator rankings | Creator tracking | Free |