An extremely difficult year for many sectors of the economy, 2020 turned out to be a triumphant year for video game manufacturers: according to some reports, they will soon overtake both the sports sector and the film industry in revenue, BI reports. As the observer of the publication explains, the reason was the numerous lockdowns, within which stadiums and cinemas were closed, and millions of people were forced to sit at home for a long time.
Pandemic Helped - Game Industry Overtakes Sports and Film Revenues Reuters
2020 was not the best year for most people and economic industries - according to the latest data from the World Health Organization, as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, more than 1.7 million people have died worldwide, and quarantine restrictions are still in force in many countries. Meanwhile, for many video game manufacturers - including Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft - the outgoing year has become a record in terms of sales: according to the latest report of the company for the research of the global market conditions IDC, the gaming industry revenues managed to reach $ 179.7 billion in a year growth rates may outgrow the turnover of the sports and cinematographic sectors combined, according to the publication.

As the BI columnist recalls, both the sports industry and the cinema in 2020 had to go through a serious recession due to the closure of stadiums and cinemas as part of the quarantine measures introduced to combat the spread of coronavirus. But for video games, the pandemic has become a serious impetus to growth, since millions of people around the world were forced to stay at home for a long time due to the same lockdowns, the journalist explains. As a result, according to the American company - market researcher NPD Group, four fifths of all consumers in the United States have played video games at least once in recent years, he notes.

The increase in time consumers spend on gaming has been recorded by NPD experts across all age groups, but surprisingly, it was strongest among people aged 35 to 54, . At the same time, the older the person, the more he began to play on average - among people from 45 to 54 the number of “playing hours” increased by almost 60%. In addition to time, consumers began to spend more on video games and money - in the same group from 45 to 54, these costs increased by as much as 76%, but it turned out to be higher among other ages, writes BI.

Individual games have made a particularly strong contribution to the increase in the income of the gaming sector, the columnist notes. For example, the game Animal Crossing: New Horizons for the Nintendo Switch, released on March 20, sold over 26 million copies until September 30, thus becoming the second best-selling game on this most popular game console, the journalist explains.

In addition, the demand for gaming products was fueled by the release of the PlayStation 5 and XboX Series X, the next generation consoles manufactured by Sony and Microsoft, respectively, . According to the newspaper, both of these consoles are almost impossible to find in American stores, despite the fact that several weeks have passed since their release.