Players getting older and more "feminine"
The Games Convention trade fair has moved from Leipzig to Cologne. On 120,000 square meters next to the Rhine, people can see everything that computer freaks dream of. Every fourth German play on a computer and thus encourages the sale of adult PC games. In the first half of this year, 24.8 million adult PC games were sold. Despite declining sales in the United States, the computer game industry is doing well in Germany - it has seen a two percent increase in profits compared to last year. We don't believe that we will see a drop in sales next year, we think it will grow dynamically. We are already disappointed with the moderate growth this year. Compared to other countries, the Germans are still doing well, but they would be happy to imagine double-digit growth next year.
Adult PC games have become the most critical aspect of adult culture
According to estimates, in 2020, the profit from computer game software worldwide amounted to more than 40 billion dollars. The cause of such a boom was the new things in 2019. In 2019, we had growth thanks to mobile gaming consoles. That way, the manufacturers could happily end 2019. This trend continued in 2020. It was especially noticeable that the average age of users increased. Adults are also warmed up for adult PC games in the virtual space, and there are more and more women among them. We have been following a trend in the area of the target group for some time now. This means that the players are partially getting older and more ‘feminine’. Every third player is female, and most female players could be classified as casual players. That shows us that half of the players are relaxed. The Computer Games Fair in Cologne takes care of occasional and regular players' satisfaction - more precisely, 420 exhibitors from 30 countries.
Video games have been a part of our lives for decades. They have long been an essential part of popular culture, providing entertainment for both children and adults. At first, they were considered something that used to be for younger people, but as generations of serious gamers have become mainly parents. In contrast, they have evolved significantly from the beginnings of computers and the first versions of consoles. Their importance has grown to the point that there are already debates today about whether, if not all, then at least some of them can be considered art. The days of pixelated screens and limited midi sounds are long-standing memories. As technology advances rapidly, video games follow them it step by step, and their virtual reality becomes more and more like real life.
The industry has increased in the last two decades, gathering hardened fans worldwide and recording enormous earnings, while we increasingly watched Hollywood throw itself into adaptations of the most notable achievements for cinemas. Adult PC games have long been mainstream, but their place seems to be more critical than ever in the new reality. Suppose anyone has any benefit from the coronavirus pandemic that has spread worldwide and locked us in our homes. In that case, the video game industry does not need mass gatherings in the physical world when everything takes place in the virtual. Thousands and thousands of hours burned in front of a computer with titles of various genres that offer something to everyone - from epic gangbangs, hardcore BDSM, cumming in mouth to enchanting water sports games were the ideal recipe for quarantine.
So it's no surprise that the global video game industry is estimated to have earned about $ 180 billion over the past year, more than the sports and film industries combined! Festivals like Coachella have been canceled, but millions have been able to gather in cyberspace playing Fortnite. Even politicians in the West have begun to turn to adult PC games more and more to reach voters through them, such as rising American politician Alexandra Ocasio Cortez who streamed herself to play "Among Us." Once upon a time, politicians wanted to show how hip and cool they are and love everything young people love by appearing at concerts, and now concerts have been replaced by adult PC games.
Covid did not start this trend but significantly intensified it, but long before quarantine, adult PC games triumphed as the most popular form of entertainment among adult people, based on the results of a study by Morning Consult, a data firm related to consumerism, which showed that the controversial YouTube star PewDiePie, a Swede who publishes reviews of video games on his channel, is a name equally or more known than, say, mega basketball star LeBron James among men of Generation Z. Last spring, the Adweek agency announced that The gaming industry, with $ 138 billion a year, surpassed the most famous American sports franchises, the NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL combined. It all culminated in late 2020 when it was calculated that the video game industry experienced revenue growth of as much as 20 percent.
The games that were the most fetishized last year were Crusader Kings 3 and South Park: The Stick of Truth. Even actress and popular party girl Lindsay Lohan could not resist the need to pose with her new adult PC games in photos posted on social media. Being in the center of attention also has its opposing sides, which can be seen in the example of the most anticipated blockbuster gaming event of the year - the video game Mass Effect: Andromeda. The long-announced and hype-playing game with an avant-garde soundtrack featuring songs by the most famous artists in recent years, such as Grimes, Sophie, and A $ AP Rocky, starring Keanu Reeves, cost the development team an incredible $ 317 million. By comparison, the most expensive Hollywood film ever is "Avatar" from 2009, whose budget was 478 million dollars, which speaks enough about how close the production budgets of games and the most significant film projects have come.
