Saudi Arabia’s $1B Gaming Surge Rivals Streaming and Music Combined

Mohammed Fathy

Last updated 8-02-2026

3 min

Saudi Arabia leads Middle East gaming, with “roughly $1 billion” spent yearly on video games.

Games now make up over 63% of digital media spending, beating streaming and music combined.

Founders say gaming is “front and centre”, no longer dismissed as “just entertainment”.

Experts call gaming a full ecosystem, spanning design, marketing, communities and intellectual property.

The region’s gaming boom is still evolving but already a core driver of the digital economy.

Saudi Arabia has quietly, and then not so quietly, become the heavyweight of the Middle East’s gaming scene. Annual spending on video games in the Kingdom has now reached roughly $1 billion, according to a recent study by Galal & Karawi Management Consulting in collaboration with Orient Planet Group. That figure alone tells you this isn’t just about people killing time on their phones anymore; gaming is turning into serious business.

Across Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Egypt combined, consumers spent around $2.52 billion on video games in 2024. To put that into perspective, spending on video-on-demand services in those same markets stood at $1.16 billion, while digital music lagged far behind at about $306.7 million. Add it all up and games account for more than 63% of digital media spending. Believe it or not, that means gaming now beats streaming and music put together. Spot on evidence that habits have shifted.

I’ve seen this change first-hand over the years, chatting with founders and creatives around the region through the Arageek community. A decade ago, gaming startups were often treated as a bit of a side show. Now? They’re front and centre, and nobody is laughing. I reckon investors who still see gaming as “just entertainment” are missing a trick.

Eng. Asem Galal, co-founder of Galal & Karawi Management Consulting, made a similar point, arguing that gaming should no longer be boxed in as a simple software industry. He described it as a full economic ecosystem, stretching from game design and storytelling to digital marketing, community management and even intellectual property governance. In his words, it’s a multidisciplinary field that needs creative, legal and commercial skills alongside technical know-how.

Saudi Arabia stands out clearly by value. Gaming spend makes up about 69% of the Kingdom’s total digital media expenditure, a result of years of investment in esports, infrastructure and digital entertainment as part of wider diversification plans. On the flip side, Egypt tells a different story. It’s the largest market by sheer number of players, growing at 11.5% year on year, with mobile games dominating more than three quarters of usage. Affordable smartphones and accessible pricing have turned gaming into a mass-market habit there, not a niche hobby.

The UAE sits somewhere in between. Growth is steadier, at around 7.3% annually, but higher disposable incomes support premium titles and stronger in-game spending. Dr. Nidal Abou Zaki, managing director of Orient Planet Group, said this reflects a broader transformation in how brands and investors engage with younger audiences. He pointed out that gaming allows Arab youth to compete globally without leaving home, while still offering investment opportunities that remain undercapitalised.

That last bit feels key. Gaming in the Middle East isn’t fully baked yet; it’s still evolving, sometimes messy, sometimes a bit of a faff. But the direction is clear. The study’s conclusion is that video games are no longer a nice-to-have. They’re a core driver of the region’s digital and creative economy, calling for smarter policies and more joined-up investment if MENA wants to position itself as a global gaming hub. Frankly, given the numbers, it would be wierd not to take that seriously.

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