2022 online gaming trends
To say that the video game industry exploded in the past fifteen years would be an understatement. In 2007, this sector raked in about $9.5 billion per annual reports posted by the Entertainment Software Association. Today, the value of the US video game market alone stands at $95 billion, while the global sphere boasts a size of $191 billion. It has been expanding at an annual rate of 26%, which is nothing short of amazing.
While video games first appeared in 1962, when student hobbyists developed Spacewar at MIT, it was not until high-speed internet became a thing that this pastime got its hooks into a worldwide player base. Moreover, during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Nielsen market research, Americans spent 60% more time in front of TV screens, and Verizon noted that video game-related internet traffic jumped 75% amidst the early stages of the 2020 global pandemic. Also, multiple mobile game developers have remarked that the average daily user engagement jumped as much as 20% in several markets in 2020.
So, it is clear that high-tech gaming got an additional shot in the arm in the past two years, with many questioning what is the future of the gaming industry now. What will the new gaming technology be, how will this tech affect this sector, and what are the hot gaming industry trends currently? Below, we dive into several popular video gaming technology trends and how this industry has been changing lately.
1. Cloud-Based Gaming
Over the past five years, interest in cloud gaming has grown by more than 447%. The primary reason is that this technology makes it super convenient to play trending gaming titles via services such as Vortex, Boosteroid, and Shadow. For the uninformed, cloud gaming platforms work similarly to video-on-demand services. They store games on servers that players can access, and these products get streamed as video to a player’s device through client software.
Essentially, cloud-based gaming has eliminated the need for gamers to buy expensive hardware to run high-end games or waste time installing them. In 2021, the global cloud gaming market accounted for $691 million in yearly revenues, and estimations are that it will keep swelling at a tremendous rate of 45.8% until 2030. So, undoubtedly, when someone inquires – what are technological trends in gaming, the top ones? One of the answers has to be cloud-based gaming.
2. The Rise of Roblox
Roblox is a game creation system and online gaming platform developed by California software developer the Roblox Corporation, which released it for Windows in 2006. Roblox is the brainchild of Erik Cassel and David Baszucki, two programmers who came up with it in 2006 as a platform that can host user-created titles coded in the Lua programing language. The evolution of Roblox was super slow for the first few years of the system’s existence, and it only started to gain steam in the second half of the 2010s.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, many children used this platform as a method to communicate with each other, more specifically as a place to host their online birthday parties. Thus, the pandemic sizably positively affected Roblox Corporation’s bottom line, as many started using this platform as a single creation and game distribution service. It now boasts more than two hundred million monthly active users.
3. Metaverse Gaming
Virtual shared spaces known as metaverses are seemingly revolutionizing the digital sphere. They appeared in the past two years, with Decentraland and The Sandbox leading the way, changing how people interact and conduct business over the internet. Interestingly, one industry that has felt a substantial impact from these metaverses is the online casino one, due to these platforms featuring virtual venues that house games of chance.
Crypto casinos, such as those listed on the premium interactive gaming review hub Safest Betting Sites, have been all the rage in the past three years. However, it now seems like token-based gambling may replace them as the top blockchain-powered gaming pick. For example, Decentraland’s ICE Poker spot attracts over one hundred thousand monthly players, generating more than $3.2 million in revenues at its card and gaming tables.
4. More Women are Getting into Gaming
In 2021, figures emerged from a survey published on Statista that displayed results from four thousand people polled from 2006 to 2021. This data showed that in 2006, women represented 38% of the player pool. Yet, now, they account for 45% of all gamers in the US. Asia features a similar female gaming representation.
Traditionally, women gravitate chiefly towards puzzle titles, with many crediting this due to the lack of female protagonists in action and RPG video games. Also, surprising to some, females have decent representation in Esports, with players like Sasha Hostyn notching lifetime earnings of close to $500,000. For those wondering – what new technology is used in Esports? AR and VR have made their way into this field recently.
5. Remakes & Reboots
As discussed, it is no longer a question is online gambling growing, as the analysis now falls on why its popularity is sky-rocketing. While many have their theories, one contributing factor is developers focusing on IPs with established fan bases. That is something the film industry has done for decades. Resident Evil and Prince of Persia remakes have sold well, and this reboot fad will likely go on for years.
