It has certainly been an extremely successful year for all forms of online entertainment – from movies and TVs to the many different facets of gaming available – more free time, more willingness to try new things, and a lot of big events have certainly helped. Mobile gaming in particular has seen a surge of activity through different genres such as gambling as although a number of changes have aimed at reducing this growth, a list of some of the biggest services here continue to grow. But the big benefit for online gaming continues to remain with esports and content creation – but why will this remain the most popular form of online entertainment?
Live streaming – Plenty of the biggest names are able to capture tens of thousands of viewers for hours at a time whilst playing games – whether this be professional players sticking to one title offering a unique look at the game for many viewers or through the growing number of variety streamers playing any currently popular title – the interaction through live chat and immediate feedback from the streamer have created a new dynamic in online entertainment and certainly one that’s looking to stick around for the longer term. This is also a reason why so many larger events have been so successful in the world of esports – millions of fans are able to communicate with each other whilst the live events are happening, this creates an entirely new experience with things like Twitch chat providing a unique experience and something that isn’t seen in any other online entertainment.
Content creators – The established content creators on YouTube and event those on Twitch continue to be a backbone for online entertainment too – whilst some have faced issues this year with problems like the Twitch DMCA strikes that had millions of hours’ worth of content be deleted, there are still huge YouTube libraries that are packed full of entertainment. Many of the creators that started over a decade ago have managed to withstand the test of time and are still some of the biggest channels today, and with such a huge catalogue behind them there’s no surprise many users keep going back for more.
A large part of the reason for success here is just within change – newer games are released and as such newer content is always available for these players, for those sticking to multiplayer online games it’s often the case that no one game is ever the same and so the content changes from match to match, and then the variety aspect of being able to jump into any one of the many different communities offers a different look for each title time and time – online gaming continues to be increasingly popular and offers more to each individual user once they find their niche and favourite title, this year has brought gaming to a wider demographic than ever before too and as such these numbers will continue to rise, and with big blockbusters around the corner, there’s going to be a lot to watch in the coming months.
