The concept of cloud gaming is still relatively in its infancy, with its roots dating back to just 2010 with the invention of OnLive, the first major cloud gaming service. While the future of cloud gaming is a little hazy, there have been recent improvements in the industry.
Newzoo, a company specializing in games, esports analytics, and market research, has recently put out a study that indicated the potential growth that cloud gaming will have within the industry. In theory, the total market earnings should reach a total of $1.4 billion by the end of 2021, which is more than twice the estimate the company expected cloud gaming to earn in 2020.
There are several attributing factors to this growth. One of the biggest factors is the rise of total cloud gaming users and general improvements made to cloud gaming technology. By the end of 2021, there is going to be an estimate of 23.7 million paying service users across all cloud gaming platforms.
Another attributing factor that Newzoo suggests is responsible for this growth is the rising interest in cloud gaming by big corporations. Companies such as Microsoft, Amazon, and Facebook have all made large investments in the industry with their own versions of different cloud gaming services. Additionally, due to the pandemic, there has been more interest from consumers to try gaming from home versus going outside and buying hard copies of games.
Newzoo claims that many have primarily focused on individual challenges of cloud gaming companies and have refused to take an overall look at the market. When looking at it from that perspective, the narrative surrounding the market revenues drastically changes. In 2020, the cloud gaming industry made around $585 million, two-thirds of that total coming from western market consumers in North America and Europe. Not only that, the market is expected to continue growing at a rapid rate. Newzoo predicts that the industry will get an estimated $5.14 billion by the end of 2023.
Hopefully, the increased interest in cloud gaming will persist with users well beyond the end of the pandemic. Many large and small companies are jumping in on the opportunity. The technology is not only improving for cloud gaming software, but the catalog of cloud-based games is rapidly increasing as more people are showing interest in the technology. With these changes, among many other considerations, it will be no surprise if cloud gaming one day becomes the norm for gamers across the world.
Source: Newzoo