Video games of any kind are, by default, digital products produced entirely from the use of advanced digital tech. Therefore, the fact that rapid advances made in digital tech would also impact the industry is as obvious as facts come. What does make this impact truly ground-breaking and amazing is the magnitude of that impact. Let’s take a quick look at some of the most profound impacts that rapidly advancing technology has had on gaming companies next.
The $160 Billion Online Gaming Industry
The net worth of the entire online gaming industry was roughly around $160 billion in early 2021, which is massive, to say the least. Even under the present circumstances, all estimates point towards an even bigger growth rate for the sector by 2022. This huge growth is only possible because the sector is simultaneously being fed by several sub-sectors, which are growing themselves because of the available technology.
For example, the online casino business showed impressive resilience to the current situation last year and even managed to grow bigger by 13.2%, which far exceeds their 9.7% growth rate from 2019. As to how and why technological advances are directly contributing to an online gaming boom, there are a collective set of reasons, which we will elaborate on next.
Powerful Smartphones
Smartphones have been around for well over a decade at this point, so it would be rather incomplete to simply state them as a reason. We need to be more precise and look at the available range of smartphones today if we are to understand how they have changed the online gaming scene with their powerful hardware recently. We will quickly summarize the effects in a few bullet points next:
- Nearly everyone has a smartphone nowadays and even mid-tier smartphones are extremely capable in terms of gaming prowess.
- That makes each modern smartphone a more technologically powerful handheld console than the Nintendo Switch.
- This is allowing developers to create more advanced smartphone games with the best tech available to them.
- The line between console gaming and smartphone gaming is blurring as a result.
- The abundance of freemium apps with in-game purchase models are flourishing.
- Nearly everyone is playing online games across various genres on their smartphones, irrespective of age/interest groups.
- The higher the demand, the more it pays for companies to invest in improving gaming hardware and software development.
Faster Internet
The world would have stopped in 2020, had it not been for the worldwide web. Thanks to fast, seamless, and affordable internet connections becoming the norm, even in developing nations, the world did not come to an end and the new WFH culture was adopted globally. Simultaneously, it was also because of massive improvements made in global internet technology that people were able to participate in online gaming during their spare time. Slow, broken, and super expensive internet connection plans are a thing of the past, which is why it is even possible for online gaming to reach as many players as it has today.
Previously, smartphones had become a gateway to access a much, much wider range of target audiences than PCs and consoles could ever do. Now that there is hardware and fast internet connections available to support their visions, online gaming companies are making that gate wider and significantly more profitable.
