Technology is present in many industries and it even plays a very important role for these industries to thrive. When it comes to gaming, it has always been dependent on technology. Both go hand in hand when it comes to developing the latest gaming technological advancements.
Gaming has come a long way and is now very different from how it was ten years ago. Back in the day, people were already happy with arcade and also casino games. However, nowadays, people are constantly looking for something new and advance. Many would now rather play games online and gamble online with their mobile devices. Many would rather download an online wheel and lottery casino app or other gaming apps just to be able to play games.
The gaming industry has been consistently growing since it existed. However, some reports have shown how the pandemic sped up the growth of this industry. Consulting firm Activate Inc.’s co-founder and chief executive Michael Wolf have said that the pandemic allowed the gaming industry’s popularity to rise around 29 percent.
This makes a lot of sense as people are now staying at home more and are trying to find ways to entertain themselves. Many are now going online not just to play games but also to watch streamers and go on gaming and streaming platforms. Twitch, the most popular game streaming platform, has seen an increase in daily active users. The platform had 15 million daily active users and 3 million monthly creators in Q1 alone.
According to Activate Inc, based on the data they have, the consumer gaming industry will be able to reach a value of around 198 billion US dollars by 2024. This amount, however, still doesn’t include sales from gaming hardware and devices.
Wolf said that there will be videogame wars. Gaming companies are now turning to offer subscription services aside from selling individual games. According to Activate, around 58 percent of gamers would rather go for gaming subscriptions. Around 38 percent of gamers then intend to use cloud gaming platforms. He believes that in the next few years, there will be plenty of mergers and acquisitions that involve gaming companies.
The shift to gaming subscriptions has also helped the gaming industry to gain more revenues. Through this, gaming companies don’t just release one game and wait for people to buy it and earn from it. Gaming subscriptions maximize revenues. Basically, with these games, gamers keep on playing and paying as long as possible.
This is why in-game purchases are present in many games. The Call of Duty franchise is one of the games that delved into this form of gaming. Early Call of Duty games was sold as an individual game but now, the series has Call of Duty Modern Warfare, Cold War, and Call of Duty Mobile that makes players want to spend money to improve their gaming experience.
Companies like Microsoft, Nintendo, and Tencent have all experienced increase in sales because of such games. For Nintendo, it saw an increase of 41 percent in profits in the first quarter of the year. Tencent’s online games’ year-on-year revenue also increased by 31 percent.
Even without the pandemic, the gaming industry has been steadily growing. More and more people are starting to be gamers or play different games due to multiple reasons. However, what would stand out is that gaming is becoming more accessible because of mobile technology
Gaming consoles are still doing great in the market, but not everybody is willing to spend money on these gaming devices. However, more people are just willing to spend money on mobile devices like smartphones. Smartphones nowadays are becoming powerful without having to be expensive. It just makes sense that more people would prefer to spend money on mobile devices instead of gaming consoles because smartphones are more versatile than gaming consoles.
There are now around 4 billion people with smartphone devices and this allows gaming companies to reach that number of people. Mobile gaming has come a long way and smartphones are now powerful enough for people to enjoy gaming console-like games.
Currently, there already around 2.5 billion mobile gamers worldwide and this is still expected to grow. IT is estimated that by 2022, 45.9 percent of the overall population will be mobile gamers. Even if there are already around 4 billion smartphone users, that number is still expected to go up and this could mean that more people might turn to mobile gaming.
