Has the pandemic affected the video game market?
Since the pandemic of covid-19 started, many sectors on the market have been affected in many ways, starting with more unemployment, less sales etc. One of the most affected sectors was the tourism and aviation industry. Some analysts think that around 5 million jobs in aviation may be lost till the beginning of next year (2022), this translates to a reduction of almost 50% before covid. This affects all jobs that are connected with the aviation sector, that means more than 40 million jobs are at risk. The quick answer is, no. For example online gambling games (casinos and others) didnt feel this impact, the sector is keeping stable levels. For example Playamo is one of many online gambling platforms that keeps strong. You can check for yourself at the PlayAmo casino app. At this point, we talked about 2 examples of sectors on the market. One has been affected and another one is keeping the same pace during the pandemic times that we are facing. If there is one sector that is a good example of a sector that is growing strong in the pandemic is the videogame industry. We faced many lockdowns throughout the year, till now. For many people, being unable to go out was a nightmare but for the gaming public, it would be just a normal day in their life. According to MarketWatch analysis, the sector with the most growth in the year was the mobile phone gaming market, $179.9 billion sales were registered, in other words, it increased 24%, followed by console market at around $52.5 billion which is an increase of 20% and PC at $39.5 billion with an 11% increase. These numbers shouldnt surprise you because, apart from the obvious, experts says that this sector increased due to the lockdowns, so people needed to find any kind of entertainment at home, mobiles, netflix or videogames. We think its no surprise the fact that they outperformed both movies and sports combined last year as the biggest moneymaker in entertainment. With the arrive of the new generation of consoles from Sony and Microsoft (PS5 and XBOX SERIES X/S) during this pandemic times, the search to get a new device is crazy and for many, impossible, due some restrictions because of the pandemic, big companies that we referred, needed to sell at a limited stock, where the pre-orders were only possible to be made online. This created an opportunity for many scalpers (people who buy a limited product for less and sell for a higher price), this is a trading strategy and not considered to be illegal. Some shops as well increased the price due to the limited stock. Some people are still waiting for the next stock of the new gen consoles. To conclude, not even this big crisis we are facing was able to stop the manufacturers of the gaming industry to keep their sales strong. If not, keep an eye on your favourite online gaming stores for the next coming stock.