{"id":126486,"date":"2026-05-06T10:11:34","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T08:11:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/?p=126486"},"modified":"2026-05-06T13:24:01","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T11:24:01","slug":"the-top-free-mobile-games-being-played-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/features\/126486-the-top-free-mobile-games-being-played-in-south-africa","title":{"rendered":"The top free mobile games being played in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Roblox and Block Blast! are two of the most popular free mobile games among South Africans, with both ranking in the top 5 free mobile game lists on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These games form part of the ever-growing mobile gaming industry, which currently comprises an estimated 3 billion active players according to the Global Games Forum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The number of active mobile gamers is expected to reach 3.5 billion by 2030, so PC and console gamers clearly cannot ignore the existence of the popular mobile platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In South Africa, mobile gaming is even more popular, with the 2025 Africa Games Industry Report finding that the country&#8217;s number of gamers had reached 26 million, with the bulk of these being on mobile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The report also found that the mobile gaming market is expected to reach R6.1 billion by 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Along with this, in 2023, the vast majority of gaming spending was in mobile, with Games Industry.biz noting that it accounted for 91% of total revenue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nearly 47% of South African mobile gamers play daily, and the gender divide is well-balanced, with roughly 53% male and 47% female.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Almost half of all local mobile gamers are aged 14-28, highlighting the overwhelming appeal of these accessible titles to younger demographics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Most popular mobile games<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The two most popular mobile gaming platforms are the Apple App Store, and the Google Play Store.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The App Store is used by iPhone users, while Android smartphone users get their games from the Play Store.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Both platforms provide regularly-updated charts that highlight the most popular mobile games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As of 6 May 2026, there were two games that featured on both platforms&#8217; top five rankings for free titles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Roblox is self-described as &#8220;the ultimate virutal universe that lets you create, share experiences with friends, and be anything you can imagine.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It serves as a sandbox where users can generate large amounts of content and self-created games, and is designed to target players of all ages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Not only is it a popular mobile game &#8211; it is also available on Windows, macOS, Xbox, PlayStation, and even VR.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Block Blast! is a block puzzle game that requires players to fit different-shaped blocks onto a board, and clear lines both horizontally and vertically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is comparable to a modernised version of Tetris, as well as another historic mobile game, Candy Crush.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Other notable free games include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>FIFA Panini Collection<\/strong> &#8211; A card collection platform where users can open packs and build albums of virtual football collectable cards. It is the most popular game on the Apple App Store.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Tile Park<\/strong> &#8211; A tile-based puzzle game where players attempt to match tiles to eliminate them all. It is the most popular game on Tile Park.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Subway Surfers<\/strong> &#8211; An endless runner game that sees you navigate railroad tracks, avoiding collisions with train cars and other objects. It is in the top 10 for both websites.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Below is a table highlighting the current top ten free mobile games on the Play Store and App Store.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><div class=\"table-responsive\"><table class=\"table\" class=\"has-fixed-layout\"><tbody><tr><td><\/td><td><strong>App Store<\/strong><\/td><td><strong>Play Store<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><tr><td>1<\/td><td>FIFA Panini Collection<\/td><td>Tile Park<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>2<\/td><td>Free Fire: Undersea Mystery<\/td><td>Block Blast!<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>3<\/td><td>Roblox<\/td><td>Subway Surfers<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>4<\/td><td>Block Blast!<\/td><td>Roblox<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>5<\/td><td>Bus Rush Fever!<\/td><td>Trading Arena-Crypto Simulator<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>6<\/td><td>OneState RP: Role Play Online<\/td><td>Vita Mahjong<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>7<\/td><td>Call of Duty: Mobile<\/td><td>2 3 4 Player Mini Games<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>8<\/td><td>Afun.MX &#8211; Casino Slots 777<\/td><td>Stickman Party 234 MiniGames<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>9<\/td><td>Jewel Coloring<\/td><td>Dream League Soccer 2026<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>10<\/td><td>Subway Surfers<\/td><td>Football League 2026<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mobile gaming has become a dominant form of entertainment in South Africa, with the sector earning over R3.5 billion annually.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":250,"featured_media":126507,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[8299,1163,26594],"class_list":["post-126486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","tag-mobile","tag-mobile-gaming","tag-top-mobile-games"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/250"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126486"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126486\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":126497,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126486\/revisions\/126497"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}