Gaming beats social for Gen Z attention in South Africa

• Young South Africans prioritise money, careers and family support over fame or status spending.
• Family and self-decision drive purchases far more than influencers or ads.
• TikTok leads brand discovery, but gaming delivers stronger attention and engagement.
• In-game branded content holds attention for minutes, far beyond social media’s seconds-long engagement.
• Gen Z values quality, fair pricing and authentic relevance, while ad blockers signal growing rejection of intrusive advertising.

Reaching young audiences in South Africa is becoming increasingly complex. Social platforms dominate discovery, but attention is fragmented, competition is intense, and many brands are still operating on outdated assumptions about how younger generations think, spend, and engage.

To better understand this generation on their own terms, ReachPlayers, a leading gaming ad network focused on immersive in-game branded content, surveyed 10 000 young South Africans aged 13 to 25, gathering responses directly inside gaming environments where this audience is active and engaged.

The findings point to a generation that is ambitious, practical, and highly selective, highlighting a growing gap between where brands invest and where attention is actually held.

A generation that doesn’t think the way brands expect

The data challenges common perceptions of youth behaviour. 45.5% of respondents say making money is their top priority, followed by 37.6% prioritising career success and 18.7% focusing on supporting their family. Starting a business came in at 14.2% and fame ranked near the bottom.

Spending habits reinforce this shift. Saving money or helping family is the single largest spending category at 44.7%, followed by clothes and fashion at 37.3% and food and going out at 26.6%. Gaming, games, and skins sit at 9.7%, ranking ahead of music, events, and entertainment at 6%. This is not a generation defined by impulsive consumption. They are thoughtful, practical, and oriented toward the people around them.

Influence also comes from unexpected places. Family is the strongest purchase influence, followed by self-decision making and friends, while influencers and creators account for just 9.5%, and ads trail at 4.9%.

This signals a generation that is more grounded, independent, and practical than many brands assume.

When it comes to trust, quality leads at 58.8%, followed by fair price at 36.0% and personal recommendation at 16.3%. Seeing a brand frequently online sits at just 10.4%. Repetition is not building the relationships brands think it is any more. 45% of Gen Z are also using ad blockers to actually avoid this repetition.

Social wins discovery but not attention

The research confirms that social platforms remain the primary gateway for brand discovery, with 57.5% of respondents saying they first encounter brands on TikTok.

However, this also reflects where brands are capitalising. Far fewer brands are activating inside gaming environments, creating a clear imbalance in how channels are being used. With over 30 million Gen Z and Gen Alpha South Africans representing more than half the country’s population, the scale of this audience is not in question. The question is whether brands are engaging them in ways that actually land.

At the same time, 15% of respondents say they do not like advertising at all.

From passive scrolling to active attention

By contrast, gaming environments show a fundamentally different type of engagement. 39.5% of respondents said they are much more focused, and a further 16.5% said they are a little more focused. Combined, that is 56% of respondents reporting meaningfully higher attention inside gaming environments than on social media, highlighting a clear difference in attention quality.

Social drives reach, but it does not consistently hold attention. What many brand managers do not realise is that social media and gaming reach nearly the same share of the South African population, 41.5% versus 44%.

The difference is what happens once you have that attention. Social media engagement averages under 9 seconds per post. ReachPlayers research shows in-game branded content engagement averages between 2 and 8 minutes depending on the activation. The gap between those two numbers is not a marginal difference in performance. It is a fundamentally different category of engagement.

This is reinforced by real behaviour, not just perception. Spending on gaming (games, skins, in-game items) ranks higher than music, events, and entertainment, showing that gaming is not just where attention exists, but where real economic activity is already happening.

Unlike passive scrolling, gaming is active and participatory. Players are making decisions, interacting, competing, and engaging in real time. This creates a fundamentally different opportunity for brands, one based on participation rather than interruption. Attention is earned through interaction, not captured through placement.

“What this study gave us was a much more complete picture of how young South Africans actually think,” says Michael Anav, CEO of ReachPlayers. “They are ambitious, they are selective, and they respond to brands that understand them. That should change how marketers plan, not just where they place ads.”

What this means for marketers

Taken together, the findings point to a generation that is harder to reach through conventional means but highly responsive when brands show up with genuine relevance. Family influence, self-directed decision making, and quality over familiarity are the real drivers of purchase behaviour.

Discovery may happen on social, but trust is built elsewhere, through people, through experience, and through environments where this generation is genuinely present and engaged. For those 18 and under, gaming has become the social backyard of their generation. The skin their avatar wears is more important to them than the brand on their back in real life.

ReachPlayers works with global brands including Samsung, L’Oréal, and Adidas, reaching millions of young players across gaming environments worldwide. This study reflects the company’s broader commitment to understanding the next generation, not just as a gaming audience, but as the consumers, decision makers, and culture shapers they are already becoming.

ReachPlayers is a gaming ad network focused on immersive, in-game branded content inside popular games and virtual worlds. The company helps brands integrate native, non-intrusive content directly into gaming environments where younger audiences are already active, focused, and engaged. By combining youth insight, global reach, and measurable in-game activations, ReachPlayers helps brands move beyond passive reach and create experiences that become part of play.