Video games – electronic games in which players manipulate and deal with images on a screen – have long captured the world’s attention. There are role-playing games, educational games, sports games and games that are based on movies and that have become movies. Some video games, like Donkey Kong, have become iconic. When Tetris, the Soviet mind game’ took over the world in 1984, who would’ve predicted how dynamic gaming would become?
Indeed, from Pac-Man to Grand Theft Auto to Minecraft to whatever is waiting in the wings, the world doesn’t just enjoy playing video games, it is hooked on them. There have been nine generations of gaming consoles since 1972. While the first generations might look graphically clunky and overly simple by today’s standards, they established a firm virtual foundation upon which the gaming empire was built.
Who Is Gaming and How Big Is the Industry Currently?
The gaming, or global video game, industry is massive. In 2023, the global video game market is expected to reach $217 billion and by 2025, it is expected to hit $268 billion. There’s no sign of it slowing down. On the contrary, there were about 2.69 billion video gamers worldwide in 2022 and that number is expected to rise to 3.07 billion in 2023.
A person can play video games on various platforms, pretty much any place there is a wall socket. You could play Sonic the Hedgehog in your apartment or on any of various luxurious European cruises. Most video games today include a serious social component. You can play with or against other gamers from remote locations as long as there is internet access.
The image of gamers might also defy your expectations. There seems to be no average, quintessential gamer. Rather, men, women, children and everybody in between seem to be engaging with video games. According to the studies, about 55 percent of gamers identify as male, while 45 percent identify as female.
38 percent of gamers are between the ages of 18 and 34, while 16 percent are older than 55. That represents a demographic that was reared on games like John Madden NFL Football. Since its first inception back in 1988, Madden NFL games – released annually – have sold 70 million copies. It is the most popular sports game of all time.
What Do Scientists Say About Gaming?
Scientists say that gaming is good for your mind, but disguised as fun. Part of this is because of the straight-up desire to engage in problem-solving that gamers seek. For many people, working for 20 or 30 minutes to solve a complicated math problem is a lot less attractive than the same amount of time trying to solve a video game problem, like using your X-wing Starfighter to wrap a cable around an AT-AT’s legs. The latter can challenge the brain in an equally compelling fashion and, for most folks, it’s more fun.
Researchers actually have lots of compelling statements about the effects of gaming on people. Some studies have shown that children who play video games for three or four hours per day were faster and more accurate on both cognitive tasks than those who didn’t play. These same researchers also found that the differences in cognitive function between the groups were accompanied by differences in brain activity.
Further, MRI brain imaging analyses found that those same children who played video games for three to four hours per day showed higher brain activity in the regions that are associated with attention and memory than the others.
The video game industry offers more to the world than silly distractions. Games can be used to teach pilots basic skills and information in flight simulators and kindergarteners use tablets to learn basic math and language skills. They are excellent for developing cognitive skills and for thinking on your proverbial feet in all sorts of scenarios. Video games are as important as the world’s appetite seems to be for them, which will likely be trending up for years to come.