2022’s Most Influential Gaming Trends
It would be an understatement to say gamers have been spoilt for choice in 2022. With the release of countless AAA titles, new technologies coming to the forefront of the industry, and massive gaming organisation acquisitions, it’s time to examine gaming’s biggest trends of 2022.
Game IP Value Increases Dramatically
Over the last few decades when a film studio has attempted to make a movie using an already established gaming IP, it has for the most part flopped. However, in recent years there’s been a noticeable shift to this narrative, an increasing number of films and tv series are succeeding and striking it big.
Looking at the Witcher which was first released in 2019 with a follow up season in 2021, this gaming IP has taken the world by storm. It generated enough popularity upon release that the sales of the video game, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, increased by 554% in 2019 when compared to the same period in 2018. Other gaming IPs following this same trajectory include Halo (Paramount+), The Last of Us (HBO), Fallout (Amazon), and Arcane (Netflix) to name a few.
Additionally, gaming IPs are also being introduced into other gaming universes. For example, Jinx (from the League of Legends tv series Arcane) made an appearance in Fortnite and PUBG Mobile, meanwhile Horizon’s Aloy featured in Genshin Impact, Fortnite and Fall Guys. As an increasing number of gaming IPs are purchased and licensed to various creative outlets, the gaming industry is set to explode throughout the entertainment world.
The Continued Surge in Mobile Gaming and Esports
Image Credit: Lee Aik Soon/Riot Games
To put it simply, mobile gaming is set to earn the majority of the entire gaming industry’s income in 2022, with $103.5 billion (53%) attributed to handheld devices alone. As mobile technology develops, internet infrastructure becomes increasingly accessible and larger masses of people are joining the middle classes around the world, mobile gaming is predicted to well and truly blast off!
And the esports side of mobile gaming cannot be left unnoticed either. 5.4 million people tuned in online to the largest esports event ever recorded at the Free Fire World Series in 2021. For more mind-blowing mobile stats head over to The Rise of Mobile Gaming article for more.
Cloud Gaming’s Slow Rise to Prominence
Since 2019 and the announcement of Google Stadia, cloud gaming has been regularly featured in technology and gaming news. Unfortunately, following an unsuccessful launch and further strategic failings, Google has officially decided to pull the plug and shut Google Stadia down in 2023. After watching the trainwreck that was Google Stadia, NVIDIA GeForce Now, Xbox Cloud Gaming, and PlayStation Now are positioned as the biggest names competing in the cloud gaming arena.
For those who don’t know what Cloud Gaming is, its essentially Netflix but instead of streaming movies or your favourite TV series, it streams the latest video games in the highest quality possible direct to any device, or at least that’s the dream. Unfortunately for a little while now these services haven’t been providing the highest quality gaming experiences, and that is for a whole host of technical reasons. From poor quality internet ruining the fun to issues with the number of players being able to access these platforms at the same time, there have been numerous obstacles standing in the way of the amazing idea that is cloud gaming.
However, in 2022 there has been significant steps in the right direction, with cloud gaming providers increasing their capacity for more players and fixing a whole host of known technical issues. A recent report published by Newzoo, states that there are currently 31.7 million paying cloud gaming users and over $2.4 billion will be spent on these services by the end of the year. This is a monstrous increase from 2021 where there were only 21.5 million users accumulating to $1.4 billion. Despite Google Stadia dropping out of the cloud gaming race, this unique gaming technology continues to progress and as evidenced by the statistics above, cloud gaming is experiencing an incredible period of growth.
Globalisation in the Gaming Market
Image Credit: ESL | Sarah Cooper
Over the past decade the emergence of the Chinese gaming sector turned the global market upside down. For proof, please take a look at the largest gaming company in the world, the Chinese behemoth Tencent.
At the end of 2017, Western and Japanese developers were on the brink of implementing new business strategies and taking advantage of the massive Chinese market. Unfortunately, due to regulations in the nation in 2018 and 2019, external developers were barred access to enter the Chinese market and were left scratching their heads on what to do next. However, with new market data made available in 2021 and most recently 2022, the global gaming market took an unexpected turn. A vast array of regions across the globe revealed unexpectedly fast rates of growth. The Middle East and Africa region alone accounted for a 10.8% increase in market size and Latin America has also grown by 6.9%. Additionally, Southeast Asia is growing faster than that of its larger counterpart to the north. This has placed the global gaming market in a considerably different position than many experts had predicted. In reality, gaming is genuinely becoming a world-wide phenomenon and new markets are beginning to take hold in the diverse global gaming landscape.
Gaming Acquisitions Are Getting Out Of Hand
In 2022 alone, the two largest gaming acquisitions in history occurred. Take-Two Interactive, famously known for Rockstar Games (GTA) and 2K (Civilisation, NBA 2K, Borderland) has purchased Zynga (Farmville) for a total of $12.7 billion. If that doesn’t make your jaw drop, Microsoft has something even bigger instore. The technology giant has agreed to purchase Activision Blizzard (Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, Overwatch) for an eye-watering $68.7 billion. This absurd acquisition is currently awaiting approval by the USA’s Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and therefore hasn’t yet been completed. However, if it is to go ahead it will be a watershed moment not just in the gaming industry but the entire entertainment and technology industries as well.
What Next?
If the gaming industry is set to continue its unstoppable growth trajectory, capitalise on its insane global popularity, and invest in new technological innovations, the sky is the limit to say the least! To keep up to date on the latest in gaming, esports and industry news choose SPACEJUMP.