Gaming Is More Accessible, Visible and Social Than Ever Before
When the threat of the coronavirus hit stateside, grocery stores weren’t the only places with lines out the door. People also flocked to GameStop, which stayed open in states like Massachusetts and California until they were given direct government orders to shut down. While GameStop may have stretched the definition of an essential business, the boom in online gaming platforms of the past few weeks has shown that for many, games satisfy a real need. People crave the comfort and distraction that video games can offer but, increasingly, they also look to the gaming community for a sense of connection. Digital technology has completely changed gaming, transforming it from an activity reserved to the players in a given room to something with global reach.
In the past month, there’s been a marked increase in traffic on live-stream gaming platforms like Twitch, Caffeine, Mixer, and Facebook Gaming, all of which share gameplay content and connect players across the world, from professionals to groups of friends. Numbers for digital gaming distribution platforms like Steam and Stadia, a cloud-based Google service that allows games to run on virtually any screen without a console, are up, too. In an effort to court the gaming-curious, this week Google announced that it would waive the $130 entry fee for the platform. For now, Stadia is the name to know in the relatively new, niche world of cloud-gaming, but that will likely change soon. Amazon, which acquired Twitch in 2014 for $970 million, is also working on getting into the virtual distribution business with Project Tempo, the code name for its in-development cloud gaming product. Very soon, Amazon will be on the game-making side of the operation as well, with releases planned for this summer. Interactive games, which will allow viewers to play Twitch gamers in real-time, are next.
It’s a busy time for the gaming industry, and many companies view social distancing as an opportunity to bring gaming to a wider audience. This weekend, the World Health Organization unveiled its #PlayApartTogether campaign, a partnership with more than 40 gaming companies including Activision Blizzard, Amazon Appstore, Twitch, Big Fish Games, Riot Games, YouTube Gaming, and Zynga. Facebook recently launched “Tournaments,” which allows users to design virtual tournaments, complete with brackets and leaderboards. Originally created for live esports gaming, the feature, which is integrated into Facebook Gaming, is unique among live-streaming platforms. And while traditional major league sports can no longer be played, esports, a long-overlooked field, are booming. While traffic on ESPN.com has declined, Twitch saw a 20% bump in March, with 1.1 billion hours of content watched. NASCAR held its first virtual race last month, which garnered a record-breaking 903,000 viewers on FS1, Fox’s paid sports channel.
At Studio71, we represent over 150 gaming content creators that aggregate over 600 million monthly views on YouTube alone. We keep up with trends in gaming to help our clients navigate platforms and partnerships and make the most of their content. To keep up with digital gaming news, subscribe to our monthly newsletter by sending a message to info@studio71us.com with the subject line “Gaming Newsletter Sign Up.”
