The past few years have seen a huge shift in gaming – once more of a niche interest for growing numbers, the introduction of different platforms has brought gaming to a much wider audience than ever before and a new movement has started with gaming as the figurehead. Combined with the growth of supporting markets such as esports, and it’s clear to see why gaming is leading the entertainment industry into 2021, and each different platform has had its role to play in the huge successes that are being seen.
PC gaming – Whilst not the biggest gaming market and still lags far behind many for a number of reasons, PC gaming is the official home of esports and in part what has brought modern gaming to the eyes of many through livestreaming. As a hobby activity, it can be an expensive venture as the cost of new hardware and keeping a PC up to date can be expensive, but with the accessibility of livestreaming through any platform it brings PC gaming to a much wider audience, and with the huge success seen in esports too, it has helped solidify PC gaming as a core component in the overall gaming market with growth expected to continue for years to come.
Console gaming – This holiday season saw the new big releases from both Microsoft and Sony with the Series X and PS5 respectively – the latter going on to be one of the fastest selling consoles of all time by selling almost four million consoles within a week. Although there have been some stock issues due to manufacturing constraints, restocks throughout the start of the year will only bolster this space further. Quietly running away in the background too comes the last remaining offer in the handheld market through the Nintendo Switch which has been outselling all other consoles and is well on its way to becoming the most sold console of all time showing that it isn’t just about top end hardware, but how great game design can carry a console too.
Mobile gaming – Quickly rising to become the king of gaming, mobile gaming is certainly the biggest gaming market out there – following the launch of the app store back in 2008, it has only been up since as the wider market have been able to access gaming where they may not have otherwise been able to do so. Certain markets have found huge success over this past year in particular as online casinos here for example have been able to thrive despite initiative adjustments such as Gamstop giving more authority, but as a wider audience continue to turn to mobile gaming as their primary form of entertainment there seems to be no slowing how quickly it is growing, and with development heading in the way of providing a better gaming service, it won’t be long until our devices are more of a hybrid dedicated system, as well as a mobile device.