South Africa’s gaming scene has a new heavyweight champion, and it’s got its head in the clouds. GeForce NOW, the cloud gaming service that lets you play AAA titles on a toaster (okay, slight exaggeration), has taken the country by storm since its December 2023 launch.
How popular is it? Imagine if everyone in Cape Town decided to game for an entire day – that’s the level of enthusiasm we’re talking about. South African gamers have racked up over 6 million minutes on GeForce NOW.
That number sounds impressive, but it is also a bit of an odd way of expressing usage. 6 million minutes over 6 months corresponds to 6,000,000 / 60 (min/hr) / 24 (hr/day) / 182 (day / 6 month) ~ 28 concurrent streams on average at any given time. In other words, 28 players are playing games via GeForce NOW at any given time.
Given that gaming is very diurnal (most people are playing in the evenings rather than early morning hours), it’s likely that peak hours see 2x-3x this average. So, we are talking about around 100 people playing GFN concurrently throughout the country during peak times.
Those numbers are pretty modest for a country of South Africa’s size, but demand is so high that new subscriptions are harder to snag than a PS5 at launch. Rain, the local partner for GeForce NOW, has a perpetual “Sold Out” sign on their virtual door. When more servers arrive, this number is just the beginning!
The service’s secret sauce? It lets gamers stream over a thousand titles to practically any device with a screen. Got a laptop that wheezes when you open a spreadsheet? No problem. GeForce NOW’s beefy servers do all the heavy lifting, turning your digital relic into a gaming powerhouse.
Battle Royale: Cape Town Edition
Popular titles like Fortnite, Call of Duty Modern Warfare II, and Apex Legends are topping the charts. It seems South African gamers have a taste for virtual battle royales – perhaps it’s good practice for braving the local taxi ranks.
My Name is Rain, Rain
But here’s where things get interesting – and by interesting, I mean confusing. My own nickname is Rain. Yes, like the stuff that falls from the sky, and yes, like the internet service provider. This led to an Abbott and Costello-esque exchange when I called Rain (the company) about my GeForce NOW subscription:
Me: “Hi, this is Rain.”
Rain: “Yes, this is Rain. How can we help?”
Me: “No, I mean, I’m Rain. The person.”
Rain: “Sir, we are Rain, the company.”
Me: “But I’m Rain, the customer!”
Rain: “…Are you taking us for a fool?”
The call ended with people yelling in the background and tossing computers out the windows while screaming, “Stop it! Take it away! Take Rain away!”
Either that or I have a Messianic complex. (South Africans can be awkwardly dramatic after all)
Don’t Rain on My Parade
Despite my nomenclature-induced woes, there’s no denying GeForce NOW’s impact. It’s democratizing high-end gaming. No longer do you need to sell a kidney to afford a gaming rig. As long as you have a decent internet connection, you’re in the game.
The service’s success in South Africa is a testament to the country’s growing gaming market and the universal appeal of accessible, high-quality gaming. It’s turning the Rainbow Nation into the Cloud Gaming Nation, one streamed pixel at a time.
Raindrops Keep Falling
As for me, I’ll keep enjoying GeForce NOW, even if it means an occasional awkward call with my internet service provider. In the world of cloud gaming, every silver lining has a Rain – literally, in my case.
