Video game revenues in 2020 set to top sports, movie industries:
Global video game revenue is up 20 percent in 2020, and will finish the year at an eye-watering $180 billion according to data from IDC. That figure beats the pre-coronavirus $100 billion that movies brought in in 2019, and the $75 billion brought in by the major sports leagues around the world.
And unlike sports and movies, which were both hit hard this year by the shuttering of stadiums and theaters, video games have only seen their popularity increase as people have looked for new ways to pass the time.
[...] Indeed, in an interview with MarketWatch, IDC’s Lewis Ward said that he doesn’t see a slowdown in video game sales coming any time soon.
Specifically mentioned game systems with higher demand are the Nintendo Switch, the Xbox Series X, and the Playstation 5.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 24 2020, @08:43PM (6 children)
Well, sports and movies have turned into lazy nagfests against their core audience... lots of those people have said, this is supposed to be entertainment... think I'll pass. Turn on the videogame.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 25 2020, @01:28AM
Never watched sports anyway (except NASCAR, but that's 'cause I have friends there).
No need for games, Gutenberg and other online libraries are full of highly entertaining books.
And when the craving for mindless entertainment gets really strong, I just come here(grin)!
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by Tork on Friday December 25 2020, @03:26AM (4 children)
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 2, Disagree) by martyb on Friday December 25 2020, @01:57PM (3 children)
I doubt the pandemic had much impact on movie and sports in 2019. From The Fine Summary:
(Emphasis added.)
Would you like to try again?
Wit is intellect, dancing. I'm too old to act my age. Life is too important to take myself seriously.
(Score: 2) by Tork on Friday December 25 2020, @04:41PM (2 children)
Try what again? How does that refute my point? If there aren't new movies or sports then money has been freed up. Video games had releases this and some of the money went that way instead. You didn't even touch what the person I responded to asserted. 🙄
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 2) by martyb on Saturday December 26 2020, @11:55PM (1 child)
My mistake. I apologize.
I misunderstood your point. It seemed to me that you were incorrectly comparing the totals for two different years as if they were the same year.
I did not see your point was that people were buying video games with funds that they would otherwise have spent on sports or movies.
Now I get it! Please accept my apologies.
Wit is intellect, dancing. I'm too old to act my age. Life is too important to take myself seriously.
(Score: 2) by Tork on Sunday December 27 2020, @06:26AM
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 24 2020, @08:44PM (9 children)
There should be a Homelessness Simulator for all those who are going to be and have most recently become homeless as a result of lack of a job/funds to pay for rent and other necessities.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 24 2020, @08:47PM (1 child)
That could really become a gritty form of a GTA game. Rockstar, are you listening?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 25 2020, @04:54PM
I can see it now... Overcome your unresolved trauma and addictions to get that minimum wage job. Give up on your dreams and accept that reality is serving bored rich clowns.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 24 2020, @10:22PM
COVID-21 is coming and you will love it.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Mojibake Tengu on Friday December 25 2020, @12:58AM (3 children)
There is actually one, it's called Fallout 4. Or Fallout 76, if you want multiplayer homelessness...
Rust programming language offends both my Intelligence and my Spirit.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 25 2020, @01:52AM
> There is actually one, it's called Fallout 4. Or Fallout 76, if you want multiplayer homelessness...
Do I get to shit and piss in the streets like the upstanding gentlemen in India? (or SanFran)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 25 2020, @02:19AM (1 child)
As in, HOW TO STAY ALIVE IF YOU'RE HOMELESS type of game. Not so much GTA, but one in which you actually LEARN how to live as a homeless person. For many just hitting the streets it can be brutal.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 25 2020, @04:55PM
Nonsense. I heard that most of them choose to live like that.
(Score: 2) by MIRV888 on Friday December 25 2020, @10:28AM (1 child)
As long as I get to shoot the prostitutes after doing them, and take my money back. I'm in.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 25 2020, @04:55PM
In this game, *you* are the prostitute.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 24 2020, @08:57PM
https://www.ebay.com/itm/PS5-DISC-VERSION-BRAND-NEW-IN-HAND/324384477361 [ebay.com]
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 24 2020, @11:52PM
I spent a fortune on donkey kong, the whole bit i made during the dot-bomb era, though my real passion is lode runner.
(Score: 2) by looorg on Friday December 25 2020, @06:37AM (1 child)
Who could have guessed that something that is a more solitary activity or something that you can do with friends without being in close proximity to each other but online would increase sales in times like this. What a revelation. Compared then to say things that require lots of people to be in one space together -- watching sporting events (at stadium or sports bars etc) or going to a cinema where you are locked in a large room with perhaps a few hundred other people. Also the fact then that a lot of the sports and movies just didn't happen. How did online streaming etc do? Has there been a massive uptick in say Netflix (and other) subscriptions?
Could also be the lineup of a lot of big game franchises managing to push something this year. Cyberpunk 2077 sold something like 13 million copies, even if they have to return a chunk of them they are probably still going to come out ok for sales -- it's their reputation that might take the massive hit. World of Warcraft managed a new expansion that has apparently attracted more new (and returning) players then they have had for over a decade. A New Call of Duty, a new Assassins Creed etc. Add in the release of the next gen consoles etc. Things look sort of stacked in their favor then compared to events that require physical people in some enclosed space. Cause pandemic or not -- people wanna be entertained one way or another.
https://www.superdataresearch.com/blog/worldwide-digital-games-market/ [superdataresearch.com]
(Score: 2) by martyb on Friday December 25 2020, @02:06PM
You may have missed that the comparison was between different years: 2019's combined revenue from movies and sports vs 2020's video games alone. (explicitly called out here [soylentnews.org].)
That said, thanks for mentioning streaming videos and for pointing out advantages of video games in the current covid environment.
Wit is intellect, dancing. I'm too old to act my age. Life is too important to take myself seriously.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by bzipitidoo on Friday December 25 2020, @07:11AM (2 children)
An issue I've always had with TV, movies, and sports from the stands is that it's so passive. I'd rather play than merely watch.
Playing sports can be good exercise, if you're just playing for fun. The prob with team sports are the overly competitive players. Like the guy who wore metal cleats for a pickup game of soccer. He stepped on my big toe when we were both going for the ball. No big deal if he'd been wearing ordinary athletic shoes. Instead, a cleat gave me a nasty bruise and over the course of a month, that toenail fell off and a new one grew in. That was the end of pickup soccer for me. Not worth it.
So, computer games it is. Even there, I find my options limited. I am interrupted so frequently I really can't play arcade or timed sorts of games, has to be more turn based, or easily paused, able to be dropped in an instant and picked back up later whenever I'm free again. That rules out a good bit of the play in MMORPGs.
(Score: 2) by MIRV888 on Friday December 25 2020, @10:21AM
Sorry about your toe. That sounds like it wasn't very fun. It's shooters for me. So yeah, no breaks.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 25 2020, @04:59PM
I played computer games and ate cheetos my entire childhood. Got congestive heart disease - too dangerous, would not do again.
(Score: 2) by MIRV888 on Friday December 25 2020, @10:24AM
I don't know why, but I have played way less this year. I'm a pc gamer and shooters have always been my thing. Since the Battlefield franchise took a huge dump (WWI? Really?), I haven't found much that I have really enjoyed. It could be me getting old too.