Gaming is one of the most loved, preferred, and popular recreation activities that is enjoyed by people of all ages. With the internet connectivity being available in all developing nations, the number of players has only been increasing. Global investors have tapped into this market and the gaming industry has seen a tremendous revolution in the past decade.

Online games have started to generate the humongous amount of revenue which was a head turner for all the investors. Software companies have started to invest in online games as the surge of advertising and marketing strategies within the gaming community has reached its pinnacle.

In recent times, the gaming industry all over the globe received millions of dollars of investment as it is a booming sector. And with the introduction of smartphones and easy access to the internet, the consumer base of this industry is growing at an alarming rate.

 Online gaming has gained so much fame that many people are now getting addicted to it. It has been reported that due to excessive online gaming, people are developing symptoms like sleep disorders, weakness, numbness of wrist and neck.

Interest in online gaming has been getting thicker with every passing year and the global market is flourishing.

More and more games are available in the market with new technologies like virtual reality and augmented reality which offers multisensory inputs to the gamer and manages to get them hooked. 

Advancement in the IT sector has helped the gaming industry tremendously as new technologies are being introduced and incorporated that greatly amplifies the overall gaming experience. Games are more life-like as it takes the user concerned to a virtual world, in turn, satisfying all gaming needs.

Some companies even host online gameathons with a huge price amount to tempt the gamers into playing their games. These gameathons are a real deal and can win you even million dollars if you succeed in the final round. This has increased the interest in online gaming globally.

The global value of the online gaming industry was 145.7 billion dollars in the year 2019. In 2020 the global value has peaked to 159.3 billion dollars.

That is a steady 9.3% increase in the global revenue. Taking these numbers into account the value for 2023 is predicted to be 200.8 billion dollars.

When you hear the term “gamer”, our mind definitely conjures up an image of a teenage boy or a man in his 20s with all the gear and gadgets. Though the general conception lies that way, the statistics tell us an altogether different story.

The percentage of men playing online games is 53.5% when compared to women which is estimated to comprise the remaining 46.5% of the total target audience. The difference is way steeper than expected. It can be said with certainty that women enjoy gaming as much as men do.

Online gaming has become a universal thing because one can find gamers as young as ten years old and also gamers in ripe old age of 65. The difference in the percentage is not sharp.

The lowest is 7.5% for age group 46 - 50 and the highest percentage is 13.8% for the age group 21 - 25 which closely followed by age group 26 - 30  at 13.5%. The number of gamers have increased in the age group 51 - 65 with 10% of them playing online games.

Even though online gaming is enjoyed by people of all age groups, the particular age group 21 - 25 has the most number of gamers.

Statistics show that the number of online gamers in the year 2018 was 2.4 billion which was increased in 2019 and the number of players were 2.6 billion.

The year 2020 has 2.7 billion online gamers and it has been projected to 2022 where an estimated number is found to be 3.1 billion players. The flexibility of the gadgets that can be used to play new age online games is one of the main reasons for increase in number.

The most preferred device to play online games is the smartphone which comprises 69% of the gaming population. Around 48% of users prefer to play games on desktops and laptops.

A considerable amount of people prefer to play games on tablets who constitute 23% of the gaming crowd. People who use gaming consoles amount to 39% of the total crowd and handheld consoles comprises 12% of the total gaming crowd.

There are YouTube channels that are dedicated to a specific game and teach us the game trade. Certain channels also go live and play games in real time.

The most viewed game on YouTube is “Garena Free Fire” which gained traction amongst the mobile gamers after PUBG was banned in certain countries. The gamers have watched this game for 88.3 Million hours on Youtube.

The next most viewed game is PUBG, amongst the young crowd. People are watching live games on youtube to improve their gaming skills. This game has been viewed for 58.7 Million hours.

Next, we have Minecraft which is popular among the pre-teen and teen crowd. This game has been viewed for 55.5 Million hours on Youtube. Bang Bang game has also gained a viewership of 41 Million hours.

Lastly, “Among US” is one of the most viewed games on YouTube. This game has been watched for 40.4 Million hours.

Twitch is a live streaming platform which is the sister company of Amazon. The gamers can live stream their games and gain views and subscribers. Live streaming of games is very popular in Twitch.

The games with most views in Twitch are Among us which was watched for 147 Million hours. Similarly, League of Legends game was watched for 135 Million hours, Fortnite was watched for 77.8 Million hours, Call of duty was watched for 74.2 Million hours and Grand Theft Auto was watched for 59.41 Million hours.

From the list, Among US tops in the most viewed games in both YouTube and Twitch.

Each gamer spends up-to 6 hours and 20 minutes each week on an average for gaming.

If we look into how much time is spent on gaming every week by each gender, the average time spent each week by Men is 7 hrs and the average time spent each week by Women is 5 hrs 48 minutes. 

Most of the people like to spend 2 to 4 hours a week playing games which constitutes to 18.7% of the total gaming population. This is closely followed by people spending 4 to 7 hours a week wherein the percentage is 18.6%. 

Some of the hardcore gamers even spend more than 20 hours per week on gaming who add up-to 7.4% of the gaming population.

The percentage of gamers spending 1- 2 hours and less than one hour per week is 16.4% and 14.55% respectively.  14.8% of gamers spend 7 to 12 hours a week and 9.7% of gamers spend upto 12 to 20 hours a week on online games.

This shows that people spend most of their time in online gaming.

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