The gaming sector is a titan when you look at the global entertainment market. With video game revenue set to reach $312 billion by 2027, several factors are driving its current explosive growth.
Traditional Gaming and Blockbuster Releases
Many people expected new tech that’s hitting the market, such as VR, to take over. Even though VR has its place, it seems that traditional platforms are driving current growth. PC gaming is more popular than ever, with a wave of blockbuster releases bringing new people into the gaming world. Online gaming is also taking off, with more games available than ever. If you browse through the casino at Paddy Power Games, you’ll see hundreds of slot games with numerous themes. You’ll also see a huge selection of live casino games, along with 5 exclusives, showcasing the amount of variety that people have to choose from right now.
The sheer amount of choice has made gaming options limitless for fans, something that new and emerging technology simply can’t compete with. As of June 2024, Steam had 101,035 games available, with their US library containing 179,934 titles across different categories.
Exclusivity and Cloud Gaming
The rapid growth of the gaming sector has led to some tough decisions too. Some publishers are creating their direct-to-consumer platforms so that they can stream games to users. Others are teaming up with other entities to eliminate a lot of the legwork. Either way, this level of competition is helping to drive and push the market. For smaller publishers that do not have the same scale of content, they can still rely on major outlets when it comes to distribution. With gaming evolving so rapidly, it’s safe to say that consumers are going to benefit the most. Subscriptions are becoming the in-thing, and greatly increase the amount of content that a gamer can access at any given time. The sheer availability of games, as a result of this, is helping to level up the gaming sector while generating a lot of opportunities for smaller developers.
Even though traditional gaming and cloud gaming are key factors that are driving the growth of the game sector, there’s one smaller factor that has a huge part to play in the future of the market. The metaverse, which was made popular by Philip Rosedale with his creation of Second Life, is immersive but has some overlaps with the real world. It allows people to share their identity across different games, or virtual worlds. It’s consistent too, so when a player logs off, they continue to exist. This allows for a great deal of customization and with eCommerce elements, there’s plenty of room for monetization. The metaverse, when combined with cloud gaming and traditional gaming, could help to make way for new and exciting developments. Even though the metaverse is relatively new, the role that it could play in the future is huge.
Even though traditional gaming and cloud gaming are driving growth right now., this is expected to decrease in time. It wouldn’t be surprising to see new tech, like the metaverse, pick up the slack. So in conclusion, numerous developments are driving the gaming sector right now, but moving forward, this is expected to change, and for gamers, it’s a very exciting period to be part of.