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Stepping into 2022, we can only look back and fathom the meteoric rise of online gaming in the past few years. Even though the gaming industry had been witnessing growth, albeit slowly, the past couple of years made people rediscover the joy of gaming and also made them realize that they can actually make a healthy living out of it.
This massive growth has also led to the rise of a new breed of influencers followed by hundreds of thousands of engaged audiences. To understand where this highly dynamic industry is headed, we have to look at the 2022 gaming trends and key technological innovations that will be spearheading the industry’s future in the forthcoming years.
Top Innovations and Trends in Gaming
One of the few sectors to experience a significant boom in the past couple of years is the online gaming industry. In 2021, Asia had almost 1.48 billion gamers making it the largest market for video gaming worldwide, followed by Europe at a distance with 715 million gamers. With 2022 now finally here, you must be very excited to hear about the latest trends in the gaming industry. Check them out below.
Augmented Reality Gaming
AR gaming is the integration of visual and audio content of games with the real-world environment. Unlike virtual reality gaming, which requires creating an immersive virtual world, augmented reality gaming allows users to play games in the real world by creating a playing field within it. AR gaming also does not require the use of headsets as in VR gaming and hence can be easily played on mobile phones, tablets, and other portable gaming devices.
Pokemon GO‘s release and global success was a gigantic breakthrough for the augmented reality gaming industry. The rise of smartphones is the key to the advent of AR gaming which makes games more interactive and engaging. The year 2022 is expected to witness the growth of augmented reality gaming that will use the camera, GPS, and clock of a user’s device to create a location-based augmented gaming field in the real world.
eSports Gaming
Probably the most commonly used buzzword in the gaming industry right now. Esports describes competitive gaming at the professional level and involves gamers from different leagues or teams facing off against each other sitting at home or in live tournaments.
Games like Fortnite, Call of Duty, or League of Legends are some popular examples of eSports that are watched and followed by millions of fans worldwide when held live at the biggest tournaments. In 2021, the global esports market was valued at over $1 billion, an increase of almost 50% from the previous year and is expected to rise further in the upcoming years.
Cloud-based Gaming
Running out of storage space or facing problems while installing the latest game? Is the new gaming console too costly? Say goodbye to such problems with the introduction of cloud-based gaming. It refers to on-demand gaming or gaming as a service (GaaS). Here, remote services that allow people to stream content on personal devices will also allow them to play games online.
With cloud-based gaming, you no longer need to download and install games on your PC or console, but a stable internet connection and a subscribed streaming service will enable you to play the game on a remote server. You will still see and interact with the game from your local device.
Although cloud gaming has been around for a while, it failed to establish itself due to the lack of infrastructure. With Microsoft, Google, and Amazon now into cloud gaming, it is expected to be rapidly deployed and expanded across the world starting from 2022.
Crypto Gaming
As cryptocurrency has taken the world by storm, even game developers are starting to design games based on advanced blockchain technology. We all know that traditional games are centralized where the collectibles from one game cannot be used in another.
However, crypto gaming allows everyone associated with a game to own a part of the game. Therefore, you will have the liberty to take your character, weapons, or avatars from one game to another. Even the rewards and purchases made within a game will be available in all the other games you play.
Conclusion
Though video games have come a long way since their first introduction, technological innovations year after year have fuelled their growth and made their future even brighter.
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