Market Trends of United States Gaming Industry
This section covers the major market trends shaping the US Gaming Market according to our research experts:
Mobile Gaming Segment Expected to Dominate the Market
- Mobile gaming is the most favored form of gaming in the United States, overtaking both console and PC gaming. Moreover, the increasing demand for mobile games results from various technological advancements and improvements such as AR, VR, cloud gaming, and 5G. This trend is not unexpected, considering the mobile game industry mainly relies on new technology. Other trends in the market include the rise of the hyper-casual game genre.
- AR is being utilized in mobile gaming owing to its immersive and interactive technology. Moreover, mobile games are the most famous AR category in app stores. Apart from previously released AR mobile games, which are still famous, such as Pokémon Go and Ingress, many new additions to the genre are being made by vendors in the market, such as Minecraft Earth and Harry Potter: Wizards Unite.
- The development of cloud gaming is an emerging technology across the United States gaming industry, which allows the user to stream advanced games across hand-held devices, especially mobiles, with fast network connectivity, thereby eradicating the requirement of regular hardware upgrades or gaming console/PC/laptops.
- The release of high-speed 5G and unlimited data plans is also expected to be a critical factor toward the success of cloud gaming in the country, as most gamers prefer games on their smartphones. The increasing services, development, and investment in 5G infrastructure are essential toward this success. Moreover, mobile games are growing faster than PC online games, primarily due to free-to-play options. The advent of cloud-based mobile gaming is set to drive this growth even further.
- In November 2021, Netflix started rolling out its mobile video games to Android users where the subscribers have the option of playing five different games on the app, including "Stranger Things: 1984," "Stranger Things 3: The Game," "Shooting Hoops," "Card Blast," and "Teeter Up." The company announced that the games would first launch for Android phones and later be available on Apple's iOS.
- Cloud gaming is also expanding across this sector due to the dominance of low and mid-level smartphones globally. For instance, in June 2021, California-based Now.gg, operating under the umbrella of Bluestacks, an Android-PC gaming firm, launched a mobile cloud platform for game developers targeting low-end and mid-level smartphone users to access high-performance games without lag or loss of resolution.
Understand The Key Trends Shaping This Market
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Growing Cloud Gaming subscriptions
- The gaming market in the United States saw an unprecedented growth in the recent years due to increased mobile penetrations and availability of new consoles in the market. The United States is one the largest markets for gaming industry and the country has the biggest library of games available to it citizens. Also, the COVID-19 pandemic increased the need for people to engage themselves in immersive experiences while staying at home. In addition, affordable VR equipment and 5G implementation allowed many users in the country to engage in mobile gaming.
- Cloud gaming services are leveraging hyper-scale cloud capabilities, global content delivery networks, and streaming media services to build the next generation of platforms for interactive, immersive, and social entertainment. The proliferation of edge data centers in the country also facilitates the accelerated growth of mobile gaming in the United States.
- The steady incline in 5G mobile networks in the country is expected to drive the surge in the adoption of mobile gaming as performance constraints associated with low wireless bandwidth and high latency will decrease. In August 2020, the White House and Defense Department announced a plan to accelerate 5G adoption by making more spectrum available to the telecoms, earlier used for high-power defense radar. The efforts by the government to speed up the rollout of 5G in the country also helps in reducing the latency lag, thus, providing a smooth gaming experience.
- Moreover, telecoms are working to determine how well their networks support the requirements of shifting potentially billions of gamers onto streaming services. All three major operators in the United States, i.e., AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, and T-Mobile, have begun working with cloud gaming companies, such as PlayGiga, Hatch, and Microsoft Xbox Game Pass, to test and develop services, including bundling deals that offer mobile data packages alongside subscriptions.
