Showmax has shut down — what happened
Its catalogue moved to DStv — see our DStv guide.
About Showmax
Showmax was MultiChoice's African streaming service, and it closed for good on 30 April 2026 after roughly a decade. 31 March was the last day to renew a subscription or redeem a voucher, no new subscriptions were sold from 1 April, and the apps went dark at the end of that month. The shutdown followed a strategic review by MultiChoice under its new owner Canal+, after years of losses in a streaming market it could not out-spend. Showmax Originals and much of the local catalogue did not disappear with it: they moved into a dedicated Showmax section inside the DStv Stream app, available on DStv Compact, Compact Plus and Premium, and to DStv Stream streaming-only customers. Installing an old Showmax APK today will not help — the accounts and the servers behind it are gone, so the app cannot sign in.
FAQ
I already have the Showmax app on my phone — does it still work?
No. The failure is on Showmax's side, not your phone's: the service was switched off on 30 April 2026, so the app cannot sign in, cannot refresh a subscription and cannot stream. Downloads saved for offline viewing stopped playing too, because the app has to reach Showmax to revalidate their licences. There is nothing to fix locally — the app is safe to uninstall.
Where did Showmax Originals and the African catalogue go?
Into the DStv Stream app, which now carries a dedicated Showmax section. MultiChoice moved the Originals and much of the local library there rather than retiring them, and access comes with a DStv Compact, Compact Plus or Premium subscription, or a DStv Stream streaming-only plan, instead of a standalone Showmax one.
Is there a Showmax APK that still works?
No, and this is worth being blunt about: no build of the app can work, because what is gone is the service behind it, not the software on your phone. Any site advertising a “working” or “unlocked” Showmax APK in 2026 is offering you something other than what it claims — that is exactly the situation where sideloading gets people infected. We removed our own copy of the file for the same reason.
