The craze for online gaming is unmatched. It is not wrong to say that due to the pandemic, kids’ playing time in the park has been replaced with online gaming. And it is not just the kids, but people of all ages who have played online games in the pandemic.
In 2024, the gaming business was expected to grow significantly. While many other sectors struggled in this difficult year, video games found a haven as people experimented with alternative forms of entertainment during their mandatory solitude. For many years, video games remained the largest industry in the entertainment sector. The only other industry capable of competing with video gaming is television entertainment, which is also on the verge of extinction due to poor audience rates.
This strong trend shows that, regardless of whether a pandemic occurs, the gaming business has additional growth opportunities that have not yet manifested.
Despite the sector’s growth surge in 2024 and completion in 2024, we still don’t know much about what the gaming business has in store for the future. For example, virtual reality games were the mainstream trend in 2024 due to their meteoric rise in popularity. However, this technology is still in its infancy and has not reached maturity. Additionally, multiplayer and social games have seen significant growth in popularity. Nintendo has also made a comeback with the Nintendo Switch console, which was so popular that it sold out in months. Even the traditional communal tables were elevated to prominence. People were actively seeking blackjack techniques online, posting their poker hands-on social media images, and inquiring about the finest card game strategies.
Such widespread popularity of online gaming has led to the creation of many online gaming trends. The topmost of these trends are as follows:
1. Mobile gaming
Source: gamesradar.com
No longer do we need costly PC consoles to play video games. Gone are the days when video games could only be played with an expensive video game set-up at home. Playing games has now become as easy as doing any other thing on the mobile phone.
People even in remote areas, rural or suburban areas who have access to a smartphone, play online games.
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2. Social gaming
In the past few years, even before the pandemic, there has been an increasing popularity of social games, wherein the players can interact with each other. Games like PUBG provide a platform for the players to interact and make friends with people from all over the world. This trend has been a hit among teenagers and millennials.
Moreover, players desire social intimacy and the associated sensations of challenge, competition, and self-affirmation while participating in the game’s activities. Spectators enjoy seeing other players’ abilities and methods to emulate them.
Although social gaming existed prior to the pandemic, it exploded in popularity during the restrictions, regardless of whether the social engagement occurred across sites like Twitch and YouTube or within the game itself, such as Roblox and Fortnite.
3. Esports
Source: insidethegames.biz
Esports is synonymous with the word tournaments. These are competitive tournaments organized by various organizations in the esports business. Yes, you read it right. Business. Esports tournaments have become a way of earning money for not just the organizers, but also the sponsors and even the competitors as they often get cash prizes.
4. Gaming Roguelike
Roguelike games, for those unfamiliar, are a subcategory of role-playing games inspired by fairy tales. These games have existed for some time, but they reached a fever pitch in 2019 and 2024. Despite the random components and steep difficulty curves that result in swift fatalities, these games encourage players to attempt repeatedly. For many critics in 2024, Hades was the most popular game, while Loop Hero was the greatest in 2024. With the increasing demand for video games and the growing popularity of this game, in particular, it is highly anticipated that they will continue in this way in 2024.
5. Cloud gaming
Source: variety.com
Cloud gaming or live streaming of games has become a popular trend among young people as it enables them to showcase their gaming talent and skills in front of a large number of people. These people establish themselves as professional gamers, gaming is a part-time or full-time profession for them.
In addition, live streaming also enables a gamer to gain a huge social media fan following.
6. Virtual reality
Ever since the technology of virtual reality came into the market, it has been a success among people. But in the past couple of years, it has become even more trending with various gaming companies entering into the market. This form of gaming is the most appealing one as it gives another level of a virtual experience.
Additionally, virtual reality technology has advanced slowly over the last few years, and most of its achievements remain experimental. However, Facebook unveiled Metaverse, an integrated initiative that will transform the globe into a virtual realm. Virtual reality technology, in practice, can enable immersion and interactivity, but it fully cancels out reality; it does not integrate with lived experience but rather cancels it! It enables the user to satisfy all of his wants, even the darkest, in a virtual realm devoid of actual existence.
7. Board/card games
Source: nytimes.com
The old and classic board games like ludo and scrabble came back into the picture with the pandemic hitting the world. These games made a great comeback, but with a twist. These games which could earlier never be imagined playing online proved to be a huge success in the online gaming market.
These games are widely played by mixed players, players of all ages, but mainly by families.
Conclusion
Online gaming is the next big trend of the century, so these online gaming trends will keep on changing and evolving from time to time based on the demands of the gamers. These are just a few of the online gaming trends to watch in 2024 and beyond. They have the potential to fundamentally alter the face of gaming as we know it and open up a world of new possibilities, so stay tuned. There are many games that will come and go with the overall trends of the gaming industry.
