Global gaming industry: Trends and forecasts for 2021

Sarah Parker
Authored by Sarah Parker
Posted: Thursday, January 7, 2021 - 17:37

The global gaming industry is a major driving force in the world with a lot going on in it. The Norwegian gaming industry has witnessed significant growth over the past few years. In 2017 to 2018, revenues generated increased from 303 million Norwegian Kroner to 400 million Norwegian Kroner respectively.

Minecraft remains one of the most popular games now in Norway with Funcom being the largest gaming company in Norway. The future of the gaming industry is a bright one as forecasts reveal impressive statistics towards the growth of the online gaming industry.

Alexander Nereng our guest author here. Research has placed the Asian tigers to hold the largest market share in the gaming industry. This is because countries like China, South Korea and Japan have shown a high potential in market growth. In the fall of 2019, the global gaming market valued at US $151 billion is expected to reach a value of US $256 billion by 2025.

Statistics also show that by 2021 video game profits can reach to US $180 billion with PC games generating over US $35 billion. There are a lot of global gaming trends we expect to dominate the online gaming landscape in 2021. Below are our top technological trends that are transforming the global gaming industry and are here to stay. Here are our gaming industry trends 2021.

  1. XR (Extended Reality): XR comes from the merging of augmented reality with virtual reality. The technology is becoming increasingly popular with game developers making more games that are XR enabled. This means that more consoles to be released in 2021 will meet the demands of XR and more XR devices will keep flooding the markets at affordable prices.
  2. Cloud gaming: Cloud gaming is the future of online gaming with companies like Microsoft, Playstation Now, Tencent START the current platforms to support it. The cloud gaming market is estimated to reach approximately US $7 billion by 2027.
  3. Cryptocurrencies casinos: Since major cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, ethereum, bitcoin cash were accepted as digital currencies. The crypto casinos have come and are here to stay. Norway odds bonus allows you to perform deposits in cryptocurrencies. They are more secure and trustworthy. Cryptocurrencies will increasingly be accepted among many online casinos.
  4. Video game streaming: Twitch and Youtube offer top streaming services with billions of live streams per hour. Since its introduction in 2011. It has allowed professional gamers to stream live video games and it serves as a form of entertainment. Video game streaming has become one of the online gaming trends that we can’t ignore but rather expect its popularity to increase in 2021.
  5. Spectators are overtaking the gamers: Gaming as a form of entertainment is becoming a spectator sport. It has been found that teenagers and young adults between the ages of 18 to 25yrs would rather prefer to watch gamers play video games than watch sports. In 2021, the number of spectators would gradually overtake the numbers of gamers. So there is a strong audience growth and it would affect the way developers produce games because the audience has to be considered now.
  6. 5G Network: The advent of 5G network is coming with limitless possibilities towards efficiency in data processing, downloading speeds and faster performance. The complaints on how slow and stressful it is to download games especially with their large sizes won’t be a problem. Latency rate in game play will also drop drastically with 5G network. The adoption of 5G networks in 2021 will cause remarkable growth in the online gaming world.

Conclusion:

The global gaming market is expected to grow as the years roll by. Technological trends are being adopted by many developers. The gaming industry has a bright future and would satisfy gamers and spectators with better entertaining experiences.