/ 5 October 2016

Pokémon Go finally available in South Africa, much of Africa

Before the launch
Panelists Lester Kiewit, Khadija Patel, Pearl Pillay and Angelo Fick. (Photos: David Harrison)

Pokémon Go has officially launched in South Africa, and several other African countries.

Niantic Labs and The Pokémon Company announced the launch on the game’s Twitter page indicating the games is now available in 31 new countries.

The African countries in which the augmented reality game is now available include: Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Rwanda, Seychelles, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Chad, Gabon, Sao Tome and Principe, Egypt, Morocco, Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Cote d’Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mauritania, Niger, Sierra Leone, and Togo.

Pokémon Go Plus released wearable accessories around the world, including South Africa, on September 16 2016. To download the game, you can go to the Google Play Store or iOS App Store with all your settings indicating that you are in South Africa.

Before the launch, local trainers had to download and create fake accounts with the region set to a location where the game was already launched.