A Nigerian-made browser game that recreates everyday life in Lagos has taken social media by storm since its release in early October, with players flocking to a virtual city built around jobs, rent, money and nightlife.
Lagos Life lets players create a character, find work, earn and spend virtual naira, pay rent and chat with other players in real time.
WeeTracker, citing Google Trends data, reported that Nigerian searches for “Lagos life” rose by more than 5,000 per cent in the week after launch.
Players are assigned one of two starting profiles. “Nepo”, a play on “nepo baby”, is for those born into money and connections, while “Lapo”, a nod to LAPO Microfinance Bank, is for those starting with little and relying on small loans.
Its creator, Shalom Rayhamen, a UK-based Nigerian developer, has said she drew inspiration from The Sims 3 and Lagos Run, another Nigerian browser game in which players drive a danfo.
Rayhamen said on X on Wednesday that the game had 3,387,866 players in total, with 161,676 online at the time of her post.
She said it recorded 4,495,785 visits that day and 28 million in all. She also said the game earned about $46,900 in its first four days. The figures are self-reported and have not been independently verified.
Rayhamen has continued to expand the game since its launch, with Abuja and Port Harcourt also added to the virtual world.
Lagos Life is played through a web browser and does not require players to download an application.
Speaking about the game’s rapid growth in an interview with Zikoko, Rayhamen said she plans to leave her job and work on Lagos Life and her other personal projects full-time.
She also hinted at plans to expand Lagos Life to other African countries, saying major announcements were expected in the coming weeks.
“I can say with full confidence that Lagos Life isn’t dying out anytime soon,” she said.
The developer said scaling the game had been challenging as she remained its only coder, but the growing player base had encouraged her to continue developing it.
