For a certain generation of Nigerians, mobile gaming began on a small square screen. A snake ate dots across the display, getting longer with every bite, while the player steered it around the screen without letting it run into itself; a ball rolled through hoops and dodged obstacles; or a tiny aircraft moved across an already-tiny screen, shooting at incoming objects and trying not to get hit.
As phones got smarter and the internet improved, the games we played became more sophisticated. Still, many of the games Nigerians played were made by developers outside the country. Gaming studios formed the early foundations of Nigeria’s gaming industry, but it was small and nascent, with funding and distribution challenges.
In September, Lagos Run, a browser game built around driving a danfo, the yellow, black-lined public buses particular to Lagos, through the city, went viral on Nigerian social media. Within three days, it had recorded more than 20,000 players. Then came Lagos Life, a browser-based simulation game that lets players create characters, work jobs, make money, pay rent, and move around a virtual Lagos. Within its first week, it recorded 4 million players and 30.5 million visits.
“When I created the project, it was intended as a side project and for me to see what’s possible around this game development, around this idea I have,” Opeyemi Adeniran, builder of Lagos Run, said in a TechCabal interview. “I feel grateful.”
Nigerian-made games have attracted attention before. What is different now is the scale and speed at which two locally made games have reached a Nigerian audience and the ecosystem that now exists around them. Whether a viral moment changes an ecosystem or only flatters it for a week is the question sitting underneath the excitement.
Nigeria has been building games for years
In the early 2010s, a handful of Nigerian developers were already building mobile and web games around African stories and everyday experiences.
Maliyo Games, founded by Hugo Obi, had an early catalogue that included Mosquito Smasher, a game in which players fought off mosquitoes, and Okada Ride, which turned the familiar experience of riding a motorcycle into a game. Kuluya took a similar approach, building games such as My Oga @ The Top, Monkey Run and Penarity. Gamsole, founded by Abiola Olaniran, focused on mobile games. Its catalogue included Gidi Run, a Lagos-themed endless runner, as well as Road Blazer, Monster Ninja and Sweet Candy.
Occasionally, those games also tapped into moments that Nigerians were already paying attention to. In 2013, a Nigerian civil servant’s awkward response to a question about his boss’s website went viral on Twitter. Kuluya turned the moment into My Oga @ The Top, building the game in about 24 hours. Within three days, 60,000 people had played it. In 2025, Rise & Hustle took another approach, combining mobile gaming with rewards such as airtime, data, and other incentives. It reportedly attracted 100,000 players in its first week.
Obi, who has spent more than a decade building in Nigeria’s gaming ecosystem, said the recent virality shows the appetite for locally relevant games was always there.
“Yes, we have seen similar moments in the past, but this one has been seismic in its impact,” he told TechCabal. “It tells us that there has always been an appetite for locally relevant games. That Nigerians love to play, provided the right social systems, cultural nuance and financial incentives are in place.”
The games found the audience
Lagos Run and Lagos Life make the local connection clear. Both games use recognisable locations, the naira as their in-game currency, and are easy to access. The games are also being built in public, with their developers responding quickly to player requests, which fits an argument Obi made at MaliyoCon in December 2025: that building for the audience you live among is stronger than chasing foreign markets.
“We have struggled to create experiences that resonate with local audiences,” he said. “ These two games teach us how this can be accomplished, but more importantly, they show that people are interested in playing games made by Nigerian developers.”
The viral games arrive at a time when Nigeria’s game development ecosystem appears more substantial. In July, Google launched its Africa Indie Games Fund, committing $1 million to 10 indie studios across Sub-Saharan Africa. Supercell, the Finnish company behind Clash of Clans and Clash Royale, has also launched an African Developer Grants programme offering selected studios non-dilutive grants up to $200,000.
African gaming market is estimated at $2.29 billion, while the number of players is expected to rise from 369.7 million in 2025 to more than 406 million in 2026. Nigeria’s gaming revenue is expected to reach $226.6 million by 2026.
“If we have more people creating stuff and more people testing it out for us and giving us feedback, it would encourage investors to come in and put in some money,” Adeniran said.
An industry grows when the success of one product makes it easier for others to follow. Lagos Run and Lagos Life’s performance offer an early signal that Nigerian-made games can attract a global audience, giving developers more evidence to build and investors more reason to pay attention.
“I think some of the infrastructure required for long-term growth has been built; what was lacking was the product use case that validated the market,” Obi said. “I believe Lagos Life and Lagos Run have created an inflection point for the industry, proving its existence. Now it is up to the incumbents and the newcomers to sustain that momentum. Only time will tell.”
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