How has the gaming industry evolved?

These days, the gaming industry is one of the biggest entertainment industries in the world. It’s certainly grown a lot since the early 1970s when the only game involved bouncing a white square back and forth across your screen. Now, modern graphics and hardware have created beautifully rendered worlds to explore that far exceed any ambition of the past generations. Here are some of the biggest sectors of the industry, and why they’re proving to be so successful.

eSports

Video games have been popular for decades, but for most of that time, they were a solo activity or something you’d play with friends sitting in the same room as you. With the advent of the internet and faster connections speeds, people began playing online. Suddenly, you could play a game of Tekken against someone on the other side of the world.

It wasn’t long before this eventually resulted in competitive gaming tournaments, or eSports, as it’s come to be known. These tournaments see individuals or teams of gamers battling it out to win the top prize. They play anything, from racing games to sports, card games and shooters. The prizes are usually cash, and as the sport has grown, with crowds flocking to arenas to watch the tournaments, so have the prizes. The International 2019, an eSports tournament that’s set to take place this August, will have a prize pool of at least $30 million – the full amount is yet to be announced.

Mobile gaming

As phones have become smarter and more advanced in recent years, the mobile gaming industry has taken the world by storm. In fact, back in 2017, global spending on mobile games and apps was more than three times the amount spent on games for consoles.

When phones became more like tiny computers that people could carry around in their pockets with them at all times, then games designers realised there was a whole new market just waiting for them. Mobile games like Candy Crush Saga and Angry Birds have become the most popular games of all time. Angry Birds has spawned spin-offs, merchandise, cartoons, and a series of films. Candy Crush Saga, meanwhile, was crowned the most downloaded game of all time on iOS devices last year.

Source: Pexels

Online casinos

Gambling is one of the world’s oldest pastimes, and six-sided dice have been found that date back to at least 3000 BC. As technology advanced and the internet was invented, it wasn’t long before people were using it to place bets. Online casinos have only been around since the early 1990s, but they’ve grown fast in tandem with the betting industry. In 2015, the global industry was estimated to be worth over $37 billion, and that figure’s expected to almost double by 2020.

There are dozens of online casinos around the world, enticing customers with welcome bonuses and free spins and deposits, with websites like Bonus Source keeping track of them all. Not only has this industry become more advanced, but it has also become more accessible to its audience.

The gaming industry is growing fast and shows no sign of stopping. With advances in technology already giving rise to brand new kinds of games, there’s no knowing what’s coming next.