Throughout different markets, gaming has been on the rise for the past few years – the handheld gaming market has been revive with the Nintendo Switch which had been quietly outselling all other consoles since release and remains one of the most popular platforms in the world, the new consoles from both Sony and Microsoft were able to sell extremely well over Christmas and are certainly looking to be a great option for dedicated gaming moving forward, and mobile gaming continues to lead the charge by being the most used gaming platform in the world. And more recently, golf simulators and other gadgets that promise realistic sports and gaming have caught the attention of early adopters. But is this change due to the platforms themselves, or for another reason entirely?
The most important market to look at is certainly within mobile – it has been the platform most responsible for the growth of gaming as a whole, by bringing greater accessibility to a device that everyone has access to, it has allowed gaming to reach the hands of those that may not have otherwise been interested, or otherwise had the options to play. With a huge number of genres available and little restriction as devices largely remain the same means that those who have both a brand-new device and an old one can play the same games – as mobile devices continue to change, opportunities in gaming will only continue too.
Other markets have also grown at the same time too – notably in esports. As some of the biggest esports events rival or surpass even major traditional sporting events – this has brought more eyes than ever before to the biggest gaming titles and has helped launch things like an esports betting market at some of the biggest operators, providing familiarity and something of interest to those who still prefer traditional sporting over virtual sporting, and a space that will continue to grow as esports transitions to mobile too.
Given such a wide variety of genres available from titles unique to gaming and those that replicate other aspects of sporting, there’s plenty of opportunities for newer players to move into the gaming space and to explore all that it has to offer, and with the future for many different markets set to feature online, online gaming will certainly be a feature, and may continue to provide the developing technologies that help to grow other markets as has already been seen with the likes of both augmented and virtual reality, two advances that will change more than just gaming for good.
(Image from nbcnews.com)
