The rising use of video streaming applications on mobile devices and televisions to view films, TV episodes and live events on demand has fueled demand in the country’s gaming business. Furthermore, many consumers want to enjoy the latest games without having to purchase a new PC or console. This has also facilitated the creation of novel formats.
According to an ESA research, over 227 million gamers in the United States played video games last year. 80% of the participants are older than 18. Furthermore, 76% of American children under the age of 18 are gamers. Furthermore, 74% of American families include at least one video game player. During the epidemic, 71% of parents said that video games provided their children with a much-needed reprieve. Furthermore, 66% of parents believe that video games made the move to distant learning more manageable.
Some significant manufacturers, such as Microsoft, which has the highest revenue share in the United States, are releasing new products to capitalise on the country’s expanding video game consumption. Microsoft released the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S in November 2020, with both live and virtual global activations. The games created for the new consoles have graphics that run at 120 frames per second. The consoles have 12 teraflops of computing power and use the AMD Zen 2 and RDNA 2 architectures.
Furthermore, some of the most important overseas players are growing their presence in the United States to capitalise on the gaming market’s expansion. For example, Tencent Holdings, a Chinese game developer, opened a new studio in California last year. The business established the new studio to specialise on releasing AAA titles. International gambling accounts for half of the company’s income.
Some of the main video game firms located in the United States are focused on mobile gaming to strengthen their market position. Last February, Electronic Arts Inc. paid USD 2.1 billion for Glu Mobile, a mobile game developer located in the United States. The acquisition doubles Electronic Arts’ mobile business.
Furthermore, because to the imposed lockdown during the COVID-19 epidemic, individuals have been remaining at home and resorting to gaming platforms to pass the time. These platforms have attracted hundreds of thousands of additional visitors in web traffic.
Last year, video gaming trends saw a considerable increase in player numbers and income. Microsoft, Nintendo, Twitch, and Activision have all surpassed previous levels of player investment. Furthermore, Microsoft stated last year that Xbox Game Pass, a subscription service similar to Netflix, had surpassed 10 million customers. Among those subscribers, Microsoft claimed a 130% increase in multiplayer interaction in March and April.
Mobile gaming is the most popular type of gaming in the United States, surpassing console and PC gaming. Furthermore, the growing demand for mobile games stems from technical developments and enhancements such as AR, VR, cloud gaming, and 5G. This increase is hardly surprising given the mobile gaming industry’s reliance on new technologies. Other market developments include the popularity of the hyper-casual gaming genre.
AR is used in mobile gaming because of its immersive and interactive technology. Furthermore, mobile games are the most popular AR genre in app stores. Apart from previously published AR mobile games that are still popular, such as Pokemon Go and Ingress, numerous new contributions to the genre are being developed by market sellers, like Minecraft Earth and Harry Potter: Wizards Unite.
The development of cloud gaming is an emerging technology in the United States gaming industry that allows users to stream advanced games across handheld devices, particularly mobiles, with fast network connectivity, eliminating the need for regular hardware upgrades or gaming console/PC/laptops.