Digital technologies are re-shaping nearly every sphere of our personal and professional lives. In today’s stressful work environments, coupled with the pressures of a global pandemic that has entered its third straight year, we need a diversion from all this.
Traditionally, games have been a great way of “letting off some steam”, and also leading a healthy as well as active lifestyle. Like many other things around us, Gaming has also evolved a lot, especially over the past two years or so.
Within the gaming industry, we are observing a major shift from physical games towards digital gaming. All this has been made possible by Cloud Gaming, which is adding millions of online gamers into the fold each year.
Till the year 2020, a conservative estimate about the number of gamers stood at a whopping 3.1 Billion people worldwide. It is estimated that by the end of year 2024, another five hundred million gamers will further be added to the fold.
Current estimates on the global population stand at 7.7 Billion people. Once we take into account the above growth projection in online gaming, it translates into nearly half of the world’s population.
Thanks to cutting edge digital technologies lies Cloud Gaming, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Augmented Reality (AR) that the masses find today’s games irresistible. Seeing the potential within Cloud Gaming, tech heavyweight like Google were quick to “join the party”.
With a massive data center infrastructure behind their backs, large tech and cloud giants have all the groundwork already laid down for the development and streaming of cutting edge games over the Cloud.
It is estimated that the total revenues from Cloud Gaming during the year 2021 were a whopping US $175 Billion. What’s interesting is that this spending figure on gaming alone is more than what was spent on music, books and movies combined.
This also speaks a lot about the sheer planning and skills that go into designing a high quality game that will be streamed over the Cloud
ecosystem. By moving to the Cloud, the Gaming Industry has set itself up for massive growth over the next few years.
The total number of gamers worldwide clearly indicates the broad appeal this industry has developed over the years with its persistent efforts. By hosting and streaming the games over the Cloud, the potential target audience of gaming has literally multiplied.
The liking for gaming transcends the traditional barriers of age and geographical location. Just hook yourself to a cloud gaming platform, and you will have access to some of the most cutting edge and immersive games ever built.
The best part about Cloud Gaming is that your partner or opponent in a game could be your next door neighbor, or someone sitting on an entirely different continent. One more area where cloud gaming has really shined is creating a huge viewership as well.
Now, we are not only talking about cloud games that are a treat to play yourself, but are equally immersive and interesting for someone who’s watching them. Technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) are helping match players better.
Technologies like Edge Computing and 5G are also entering a phase of mass scale adoption. Such technologies will go a long way in streaming even those games on the Cloud, which might not be possible right now.
Presently, the game development industry also seems really hooked to Cloud Gaming, and for good reasons. By leveraging the Cloud, game developers are finding it much easier to adopt cutting edge and immersive elements within their creations.
Most experts in the gaming industry strongly believe that the real future of gaming lies in Cloud Gaming. Lastly, this transition has been so smooth and interesting that gamers have hardly felt anything missing when enjoying their favorite games over the Cloud.
It appears that there are even better days for the Cloud Gaming industry that are yet to come. This is also great news for the millions of gamers worldwide.
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