The Impact of Covid-19 on the Online Gaming Industry

Covid-19 and the innumerable lockdown have hit every industry hard, and the gaming industry is no exception. During this covid-19 pandemic period, the demand for online entertainment has increased significantly across the world. Everybody is looking for online entertainment games like teen Patti, andar bahar, and poker during their stay at home because of covid-19 lockdown. Andar Bahar is one of the most popular Indian gambling games that has increased lately. As a result of the pandemic, the gaming industry is pivoting to make sure that people can now enjoy Andar Bahar online games safely at home. The icing on the cake is there are multiple online casinos offering online games. They have enhanced their online gaming experience for the players with live casinos.

According to the digital media trends survey by Deloitte in 2020, it is found that during the covid-19 pandemic, about 1/3 of the consumers have subscribed to a video gaming service, for the first time or have watched a virtual sports event. With offices and schools being closed and travel plans being canceled, more people have taken to playing online video games.  

Real money games and skill-based games where players can put money are seeing an uptick. With this, players are making money on their win, and gaming platforms are securing commissions.

The Gaming Business Model

According to the forecasts, the global gaming market will be worth $159 billion by 2021. This is three times the music industry revenue and 4 times the box office revenue. The largest market is the Asia Pacific, with more than 50% of the games by market value. Again, North America accounts for a quarter of this revenue. 

The gaming revenue depends on the spending of the consumers. However, the business model has evolved in recent times. The business model has come in tandem with the improvements of game bandwidth, hardware, and mobile internet. This has made quality games more accessible across different platforms and devices. About 48% of the revenue of the industry comes from mobile gaming.

The number of gamers have increased in the past 1 year. More enthusiasts are spending time on gaming activities every day. In the time when investments are truly drying up, many gaming startups have attracted funds. 

Covid-19 Boosts Video Games Engagement

Like several companies, the gaming industry is supporting many community initiatives to combat the effects of COVID-19. It includes charitable pledges worth several million dollars, the donation of excess computational power for helping research understand coronavirus better, and solidarity response funds for helping the medical workers. 

Barring social actions, the consequence of a coronavirus pandemic on the gaming industry has been the significant enlargement of the audience. Gaming has become an in-home activity. It has become a steady stream of headlines.

Gaming giants like Tencent or Nintendo both saw an increase in sales in the first quarter of the pandemic. The latter sold almost half of the games digitally. This helped in increasing its profit by 41%. Also, Tencent’s online game revenue increased by 31%. 

The game released during the pandemic performed really well. Data published by Comcast shows that download of new games has increased by 80% in comparison to just 50% in total game download. 

However, looking at sales and download alone doesn’t paint a complete picture as several games are available for free. According to a report by Verizon, there has been an increase in the gaming traffic by 75% during peak hours. 

Long-Term Transformation

Talking of the long-term, there are many takeaways from the recent increase in gaming indicating future transformations in the industry. The greater interest in gaming might accelerate a shift towards the delivery of games through cloud-based and mobile platforms. You will also find blockbuster titles for mobile devices. In the meantime, cloud gaming enables consumers to play streamed games even without expensive hardware. 

The second trend is the extension of monetization avenues through free-to-play and subscription models. Subscription offers a reliable path to monetization for quality but smaller games that otherwise lack monetization or marketing nous for breaking into the mainstream. However, this doesn’t mean that demand for high-end games will reduce. 

Free-to-play games will enable developers to monetize the need to convince gamers to make up-front purchases. Rather, they offer in-game upsell opportunities like expansion and upgrade packs. 

Another transformation you can expect to see in the gaming industry is a partnership with other entertainment fields. A few video games have become so popular that they are going to spill over the cultural discourse. 

One such game is Fortnite. It has made its mark on sports, music, and television. This game has hosted live concerts and has also premiered new albums. Sony is developing an immersive media team for working at the intersection of gaming and music. 

Read this also: Finding the Best NBA and Basketball Apps

Finally, the pandemic might normalize esports. According to analysts, esports has been legitimized and popularized in an unpredictable and profound manner.

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