Everything came to a halt when the Prime Minister declared a nation-wide lockdown on 24th March,2020. Just like goblins, elves, ghosts, giants about whom people had just heard of, they came to know about the deadly COVID-19. While elderly people sat glued to the television switching on news channels, sanitizers and masks flooded the markets.The streets that once were thronged by people became silent. The clouds of uncertainty hovered constantly for nobody knew who’d fall next as a prey to the deadly virus. The first thing everybody would do in the morning since then was check the update about the number of people affected that kept on increasing. As the virus took a toll, everything changed. Some lost their near and dear ones while a few were spared, by chance. Everything was affected starting from education to politics, from economy to society. In all of this, as children started staying indoors the craze for video games increased. Of course, video games had been popular among kids and adults for a long time, but with this, the demand increased. Since past times, video games have been quite popular among the young generation. Despite being around for decades, their increase in popularity is actually witnessed nowadays.
Why are video games becoming popular?
Video games actually reached wider audiences in the 1990s with the advent of the first-person shooter genre and popular nonaction games such as Myst. They not only serve as a means to pass time but also enable the player to connect to different people, may it be a friend or on a global level as well. The video games that are developed nowadays provide this benefit and hence, the younger generation takes much interest in this. A study said, “77% of parents regularly play video games with their children.” As technology continues to improve, video games also do. They have evolved much from the early days of computer games and the first versions of Nintendo and Atari. Pixelated screens and limited sounds in earlier days are now a distant memory as video games have become more lifelike than ever. This makes not only kids but adults actively take interest in video games of all types. According to a report, “The global video game market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 12.9% from 2022 to 2030 to reach USD 583.69 billion by 2030.” This popular form of entertainment is gaining popularity at a very increasing rate.
Gen Z and video games
Generation Z consists of anyone born after 1996. This is the generation that communicates primarily through social media and texts, and that spend much more time on the internet compared to previous generations. When it comes to this time online, Gen-Zers are arguably more technologically advanced and thus, have higher standards. The thing with Gen Z is that they want to create a sense of belonging and thus want to connect with like-minded people globally. According to this generation, one of the best ways to socialize is to play video games actively so that they can connect to a number of people worldwide just by means of this. Plus, the most interesting thing along with that is that the recognized gamers also earn along with enjoying to play, through live streams on YouTube and Twitch, mostly. The growth in technologies has had a great impact. 3D graphics, improved AI and VR has led to the further development of growth within the video game industry and has enabled more and more people to engage. With these new advanced developments in technology and video games, Gen Z players get more realistic simulations which enables them to connect to other players all over the world in a much better way. The industry’s future actually depends on the continued creation of innovative experiences and growth.
What study says and people say
According to a study, “Right now, over 5 million people are playing Fortnite. Last month, nearly 240 million people played Candy Crush. Last year, 31 million of us paid $50+ for a new version of Animal Crossing.” P.J. McNealy, CEO of Digital World Research said“I personally like competing and playing well. Playing one, two or three quick death-match rounds online can be a nice little pocket of entertainment for me — and escapism from Twitter, COVID or, heck, pick a national crisis!” “The creative side of you, rather than the competitive, can come out,” McNealy says. As for adults, video games have also started being popular for them. Walter Day, a 71-year-old whose interest in gaming legitimacy led to his founding Twin Galaxies, an organization that certifies and maintains a log of record scores said, “We are the pioneers. And we, as a generation, are still alive, still tooling with this and pushing this forward,” he told me. “The phenomenon of senior gamers is about to sprout and blossom and become a very, very big deal, because these tens and tens of millions of people aren’t going to retire from video games.”
