The NPD Group recently published its ‘2020 Evolution of Entertainment’ report, based on a survey polling from 5,000 respondents in the US. The report suggests that there has been dynamic growth in the online video gaming industry as almost 79% of US citizens belonging to all age groups were found to be engaged in video gaming in the past six months. In comparison to 2019, this year, people got more opportunities to engage in this activity, almost by a 6-point increment from before. The total estimated time that these US citizens spent on online gaming has also increased by 26%. This report also suggests that these consumers not only play free games, but their in-game spend and the overall spend on games has been found to have increased too, by around 33%.
Now, these are some big changes in consumer behavior, and most of this credit goes to the coronavirus pandemic. The disease that halted the entire world crashed the world’s biggest economies, and brought so much damage to the health and lives of millions of people; it somehow turned out to be quite beneficial for the gaming industry.
Because of global lockdowns to prevent COVID-19 from spreading, people all over the world were bound in their homes for a good amount of time. They turned towards mobile tech apps for their information and entertainment. The people who were already fond of video gaming had a good opportunity and time on their hands to indulge in their favorite past-time. However, this time around, people who were not into gaming previously also became interested and started indulging in online video games.
According to this report, people between the ages of 45 and 54 spent around 59% more time on gaming in comparison to 2019. Their cash spend on games also increased by 76%.
People belonging to the age group of 55-64 are spending around 48% more time on online gaming. Their cash spend on games has increased by 73%.
People over 65 years of age also indulged in online gaming. Their time spent increased by 45% as compared to 2019, and their cash spend on online games increased by 29%.
The NPD Group says that mobile gaming was found to be the strongest avenue, perhaps because almost everyone belonging to all age-groups has a mobile phone on their hands. So, it is more accessible. But that does not mean that console games did not see any boom. Families indulged in multi-player gaming during their time of confinement in quarantine.
Now, the NPD Group wonders whether this trend of online gaming will continue to grow once the pandemic is over or not? The gaming apps have to employ really ingenious methods to retain all these new gamers.
Read next: These are the biggest app stores in the world
Now, these are some big changes in consumer behavior, and most of this credit goes to the coronavirus pandemic. The disease that halted the entire world crashed the world’s biggest economies, and brought so much damage to the health and lives of millions of people; it somehow turned out to be quite beneficial for the gaming industry.
Because of global lockdowns to prevent COVID-19 from spreading, people all over the world were bound in their homes for a good amount of time. They turned towards mobile tech apps for their information and entertainment. The people who were already fond of video gaming had a good opportunity and time on their hands to indulge in their favorite past-time. However, this time around, people who were not into gaming previously also became interested and started indulging in online video games.
According to this report, people between the ages of 45 and 54 spent around 59% more time on gaming in comparison to 2019. Their cash spend on games also increased by 76%.
People belonging to the age group of 55-64 are spending around 48% more time on online gaming. Their cash spend on games has increased by 73%.
People over 65 years of age also indulged in online gaming. Their time spent increased by 45% as compared to 2019, and their cash spend on online games increased by 29%.
The NPD Group says that mobile gaming was found to be the strongest avenue, perhaps because almost everyone belonging to all age-groups has a mobile phone on their hands. So, it is more accessible. But that does not mean that console games did not see any boom. Families indulged in multi-player gaming during their time of confinement in quarantine.
Now, the NPD Group wonders whether this trend of online gaming will continue to grow once the pandemic is over or not? The gaming apps have to employ really ingenious methods to retain all these new gamers.
Read next: These are the biggest app stores in the world
