Video Gaming now the Most Popular Form of Entertainment in the World?

Gaming has been loitering on the edge of absolute domination for some time but now it’s official - gaming is the most popular form of entertainment on the planet. More money is spent on games than on TV, movies, books, and just about any form of entertainment you can think of.

According to Reuters, gaming grew by 10.7% during the last year alone, while television continued its steady decline with an 8 percent drop globally. The total gaming revenue for the past year amounted to an estimated $116 billion, compared to $105 billion for TV and TV streaming services.

Compared to movies and music, gaming absolute the dwarfs the competition though. Just $17 billion was made from digital music sales and streaming, while movie box office totals for the past year amounted to $41 billion. So to clarify - gaming is now worth almost three times as much as the movie industry.

Gaming’s big then, no surprises there, but where’s the increased coming from? Growth in China is one of the leading answers. In China, game sales increased 14% per year on average and we’ve seen this with the huge increase in the number of Chinese players using Steam.

The other answer, of course, is... (Continue Reading)