With The Last of Us Remastered sparking conversations everywhere, one can only think of how advanced video games and gaming consoles have developed and grown in popularity over the years.

Video games are played by almost 3 billion people globally.

Many of us have downloaded or played video games at some point in our lives, whether it be for the purpose of conquest or collecting Pokemon. According to estimates from 2021, there were 2.96 billion games worldwide. The number of people who play games on PCs, consoles, tablets, and smartphones is predicted to surpass 3 billion this year and reach 3.32 billion by 2024.

But how did video games develop over the last decade?

Let’s find out!

Twitch

One can attribute a major shift in how people game to the introduction of Twitch.

Launched in June 2011, Twitch lets users make their own video streams, and it quickly gained a ton of popularity. Video games like the multiplayer strategy game League of Legends, the block-building adventure Minecraft, and the battle royale shooter Fortnite have all gained popularity on Twitch as a result of live competitive streaming. 

Amazon acquired Twitch for $1 billion in 2015. It regularly welcomes more than 15 million daily active users and has already given rise to five annual Twitchcon fan events that may one day compete with ComicCon.

Nintendo Switch

It followed the Nintendo Wii U’s colossal failure, which many believed would be the Japanese company’s downfall as it failed to provide appealing console hardware for the first time in decades.

Even if you don’t like Nintendo’s platform, you can’t dispute how much of an impact it has had on the gaming industry, whether it be due to its technological advancements or its never-ending collection of titles that never cease to amaze.

Along with The Witcher 3, Breath of the Wild is considered one of the all-time greats in the open-world gaming genre.

The excitement and freedom of switching between docked and portable mode cannot be compared with other consoles; instead, it seems like a work of technical magic.

The Nintendo Switch’s hardware supremacy has recently become more evident; the basic ideas behind the device are ageless and will definitely inspire all future consoles produced by the company.

Narrative Games

With games that employ cinematic and heavily plotted elements like Telltale’s The Walking Dead, Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us, and The Dark Pictures Anthology Series.

An adored trend that started with the critics’ and audience’s acclaimed Heavy Rain. These games rely heavily on the player’s emotional journey and interacting with a deep world of relationships and emotions.

While narrative games have existed for 30 years, the last decade witnessed the move from being small titles towards becoming mainstream and extremely popular all-around gaming experiences.

Mobile Gaming

Despite the fact that mobile games have been present since the first Nokia cellphones—talk about Snake—they truly came into attention after the debut of the iOs App Store in 2007. The in-app purchase feature that Apple first launched in 2009 is what set the tone for mobile games for the next ten years.

The popularity of gaming on mobile devices has skyrocketed.

• The location-based augmented reality mobile game Pokemon Go by Niantic Inc. reached $3 billion in lifetime earnings.
• In its first four months on the App Store and Google Play, Tencent Games’ multiplayer PUBG Mobile game surpassed 100 million downloads.
• With 129.3 downloads in the first 30 days of release and over $37.4 million in player spending since September, Mario Kart Tour was the biggest mobile launch for Nintendo in the first month.
• Call of Duty Mobile overtook it as the second-most successful mobile launch of all time after receiving 148 million downloads in its first month.

The past decade has seen massive tech advancements in mobile device development and groundbreaking profits from cellphone game sales.

The future looks promising with the release of Sony’s PlayStation 5 and its sales frenzy, when it reached 4x its retail price around Christmas. And all the insane time people spent on gaming during the pandemic. One can be sure that video games are breaking through as a worldwide sport really soon and are one of the most profitable entertainment sectors.