Gaming is by far the largest and most diverse industry in the entertainment industry. Globally, the gaming industry is now worth more than $145 billion dollars, and it continues to increase year after year.
Gaming is seen as a fantastic way to unwind, have fun, and socialize with friends, and there are several reasons why it has become the most popular form of entertainment in recent years.
To put gaming’s popularity into perspective, the global music industry is worth roughly $20 billion dollars, while the global box office took in around $42.5 billion dollars; even when these two leading kinds of entertainment are combined, they are worth less than half of the gaming industry.
By way of comparison, when one of the world’s top blockbuster movies Avengers: Endgame was released by Marvel, it made $858,373,000 US dollars in its opening weekend, and when action game Grand Theft Auto V was released in 2013 it made over $1 billion US dollars within just three day
The volume and variety of games available across all of the different device and console kinds is one of the things that makes gaming so enticing to such a big market.
For example, this Michigan-based online casino offers over 370 online slots and 60 table games, ensuring that every type of interest is catered for and guaranteeing that the sector continues to grow in the future.
Action, adventure, strategy, first-person shooters, and massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) are among the most popular video game genres, although simulation, sports, and puzzle games are also popular.
The first-person shooter Call of Duty: Black Ops: Cold War had the most sales at the end of last year, followed by Call of Duty: Modern Warfare.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons, a Nintendo Switch simulation game, was the third most popular video game in terms of sales.
The game appeals to a wide audience, including fans of the original Nintendo DS game as well as a new, younger audience, and is frequently lauded for its creative flexibility and gameplay mechanics.
So how did gaming emerge as such a popular form of entertainment?
It wasn’t until the 1990s that gaming became possible and easily accessible on the internet, before then players relied on arcades, consoles and computer software to enjoy this form of entertainment.
Steam, an online gaming retailer, joined the market in 2003, making it easier for gamers to buy and review games online.
The game World of Warcraft was published shortly after. After becoming the first MMO to reach 10 million subscribers, WoW remains one of the most popular games in the business.
By 2007, mobile gaming had become increasingly popular, and Apple had added the option to make in-app purchases to their handsets.
Then, for the first time in 2015, the number of mobile gamers surpassed one billion for the first time.
When Google announced the development of Stadia, a cloud gaming service, gaming without a console became more accessible in 2019.
It’s no surprise that gaming has surpassed more traditional kinds of entertainment like music and movies, thanks to its rapid growth and advancement.
The future of gaming is said to be mobile
While mobile gaming is still a relatively new industry, its current rate of growth suggests that it will soon account for the majority of all gaming. Last year, around two and a half billion people enjoyed playing games on their phones.
Smartphones have become an essential item for many people around the world, they help us to stay connected to friends and family, access online resources and source of entertainment.
The three most popular categories for mobile app downloads include social media apps such as Facebook and TikTok (67 percent), shopping (56 percent) and mobile gaming (50 percent).
Mobile games are the second most popular sort of app download for young people aged 18 to 20 years, after social media apps.
As the gaming industry expands, technological improvements that enhance the gaming experience will entice new audiences.
Virtual reality gaming, cloud gaming, and real-time personalization, in particular, are all likely to transform the industry as we know it in the next few years.
