{"id":126775,"date":"2026-05-27T11:22:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T09:22:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/?p=126775"},"modified":"2026-05-29T13:29:37","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T11:29:37","slug":"best-south-african-isps-to-download-steam-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/features\/126775-best-south-african-isps-to-download-steam-games","title":{"rendered":"Best South African ISPs to download Steam games"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

According to Valve data, Afrihost is the best major South African ISP for downloading Steam games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Steam shows the average download speeds of the ten most popular ISPs from each country – and Afrihost currently holds the top two spots for South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Steam’s data,<\/strong><\/a> the Afrihost Fibre network averages 87.7 Mbps, while the Afrihost “Other” network averages 71.7 Mbps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Steam does not disclose what the “Other” categorisation refers to – but given AirMobile has its own listing, it is likely to be Afrihost’s Pure Wireless 5G offering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The chasing pack<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The next best ISPs after Afrihost are NTT Data and Vox Telecom – which offer 66.2 Mbps and 66.1 Mbps average download speeds respectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Axxess Networks is the other ISP with over 60Mbps average speeds, having recorded a 64.7 Mbps average.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the bottom of the list are HeroTel with 36.9 Mbps, Telkom with 34.9 Mbps, and rain with 29.7Mbps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is important to know that this list only includes the ten most popular ISPs in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Therefore, there may be smaller ISPs that achieve higher average download speeds than Afrihost, or lower speeds than Telkom, HeroTel, and rain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The top 10 ISPs in South Africa are listed below – sorted by average download rate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ISP<\/th>Average Download Rate<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
Afrihost Fibre<\/td>87.7 Mbps<\/td><\/tr>
Afrihost Other<\/td>71.7 Mbps<\/td><\/tr>
NTT Data<\/td>66.2 Mbps<\/td><\/tr>
Vox Telecom<\/td>66.1 Mbps<\/td><\/tr>
Axxess Networks<\/td>64.7 Mbps<\/td><\/tr>
AirMobile<\/td>58.1 Mbps<\/td><\/tr>
Vodacom Business<\/td>50.5 Mbps<\/td><\/tr>
HeroTel<\/td>36.9 Mbps<\/td><\/tr>
Telkom Internet<\/td>34.9 Mbps<\/td><\/tr>
rain<\/td>29.7 Mbps<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Steam data also ranks the top ten ISPs by total bytes delivered to the network – or in other words, which ISPs have the most Steam traffic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NTT Data is at the top of this list, followed by Vox Telecom and Telkom Internet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Afrihost Other was in fourth place, while Afrihost Fibre was in eighth place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Steam<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Then vs now<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In 2019, MyBroadband<\/strong><\/a> performed a similar analysis to the one above.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The average download speed in 2019 across all ISPs was 11 Mbps – and it is now a much more impressive 49.2 Mbps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The slowest of the top ten ISPs in 2019 was Telkom Internet, which had an average download speed of only 7.4Mbps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fastest average download rate was 30.4 Mbps by Cool Ideas, and it was one of only two ISPs (alongside Afrihost) to average over 20 Mbps average speeds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In contrast, 2026 data shows that every top 10 ISP achieves over 20Mbps average speeds – and the industry-leading Cool Ideas of 2019 would only beat rain today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other interesting insights when comparing 2019 and 2026 include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n