Deluxe Creation Studios’ Shola Edu on monetisation in Africa, global audiences and what actually drives revenue

• Paid user acquisition is often unviable, with high costs and weak retention limiting return on investment.
• Mobile remains the most scalable platform, but meaningful revenue requires millions of installs and strong retention.
• PC monetisation offers clearer revenue per user, but lacks the distribution scale of mobile.
• Africa’s gaming revenue figures are often inflated by telecoms, betting and gambling rather than traditional games.

The challenge facing mobile game monetisation in Africa is not player demand but revenue reality. Studios operate in a market where visibility, global reach, and player purchasing power matter far more than local scale alone.

We speak with Deluxe Creation Studios founder Edu Shola about why business models are breaking down, how global audiences drive real revenue and what it actually takes to build a sustainable games business from Africa.

This interview is part of the ongoing debate in Africa's games industry on monetisation and which platforms offer the best opportunities. This was sparked by our interview with Masseka Game Studio founder Teddy Kossoko, who shared his views on the challenges of monetising players in the region. 

PocketGamer.biz: Do you believe mobile gaming monetisation in Africa is structurally struggling, or is the problem more about execution and business model? 

Shola Edu: It's mainly about business model and execution. But devs need to focus on getting significant eyeballs on their games, or else it gets buried and no one plays it when no one sees it, which leads to little or no revenue. Let's also remember that where the traction is coming from also matters. 

Our game Stickman Magic Brawl did 95% of its 300k+ downloads outside the continent, which is why it's one of our best titles revenue-wise, and that's where games like Adventures of Chike have suffered early in 2017. We used to focus on marketing and appeal in Africa. Also, is there a guarantee that players can buy the game (if paid), which is rare on the continent.

We don't have lot buying mobile games and we also don't have a lot of devs publishing paid games, but at deluxe we operate a free to play model), if the game is free to play with ads, is getting enough downloads or daily active users in tier one countries to earn good revenue? or if its free to play with iap, do the current players have the purchasing power to spend in the game?. 

If you had to choose today, would you bet on mobile or PC for sustainable revenue in Africa, and why? 

This will depend on the studio, how it's funded and structured and most importantly, the kind of games. But I've studied the space for over a decade, mobile has the best advantage considering the number of people with mobile devices around the world.

I don't think revenue should be limited to Africa if the dev or studio is serious about revenue. Only the telcos have cracked this.

Is the “PC has higher purchasing power” argument convincing to you, or does it ignore scalability constraints? 

This is only valid because the only sure way to own a pc game is to buy it or spend later in-game, compared to mobile that are mostly free to play with ads. So if a pc game gets 20k installs for a price of $5, that's about a $100k, but it's not the same for a mobile game with 20k installs monetised with ads, with ads it's dependent on several variables: players' location, how many ads players see, DAU. Also, remember 20k installs doesn't equal 20k DAU. 

So if we use the US as an example, a 20k ad monetised game will earn around 1k - 3k with moderate engagement. Although having higher retention and strong ad optimisation can help increase revenue, on mobile, higher revenue requires more millions of installs. Also, note that mobile players move fast. But the cool thing about mobile is you can make money from a player as long as they have the game installed and they play it (considering they always see or interact with ads) 

What are the biggest monetisation blockers you face in your market: payments, ARPU, retention, CAC, ad revenue, or something else? 

ARPU is the most immediate constraint. Average revenue per user in Africa is low enough that most of our meaningful revenue comes from outside Africa, primarily from the United States. Ad revenue and in-app purchases within Africa simply do not perform at levels that sustain a studio. We have done paid user acquisition, but the economics are punishing. 

The cost per acquired user is high, and paid users retain at lower rates than organic ones. The return on ad spend rarely justifies the investment at scale. What this creates is a compounding challenge; growth requires constantly improving the product to drive more daily engagement, more ad views, and better conversion incremental gains that require ongoing development resources. 

You can't simply buy your way to scale that lasts, and organic growth, while more valuable per user, is slow and hard to control. The honest answer is that sustainable monetisation in this market requires building games good enough that players outside Africa want to play them. That tension between cultural authenticity and commercial reach was something we considered while building Rasta Santa. 

Designing for African audiences is a values decision we believe in, but you cannot build a financially viable business if you limit your revenue expectations to African ARPU. The two don't have to conflict. Black Myth: Wukong has a strong Asian identity, God of War has a strong Greek identity; both are global hits. Strong cultural identity doesn't shrink your audience, it sharpens it. 

The goal is to build something that feels genuinely African and is good enough that the rest of the world wants in. Also, I'm not ignoring the marketing reach of Santa Monica and Game Science. Lots and lots of streamers and creators played those games even before release, so you can imagine the anticipation they built before launch. Cultural identity gets you a compelling product distribution, and creator marketing gets people through the door. 

Do you think Africa’s mobile gaming revenue is overstated because of betting and gambling being grouped into broader industry figures? 

Yes, definitely it's commonly overstated, but also, I think the biggest part most people miss is that telcos play a huge part. So, gambling and betting, telcos are the main contributors to the huge numbers, and some African games have the smallest share. But let's not forget that mobile games hold the biggest share globally, so in the case of Africa, it’s definitely the business model and, most importantly, obscurity in the stores.