It’s that special time of the year, the clocks have gone back and we start thinking about presents and asking each other, ‘seen the John Lewis advert yet, what do you think?’. Although, this year things are a little different. We are asking each other these types of questions not over a festive hot or cold drink but on Teams, Zoom or ‘Houseparty’ (remember that?).
Collins Dictionary’s word of the year for 2020 is ‘Lockdown’, citing the reason it "encapsulates the shared experience of billions of people" and as the UK is at different stages of the second lockdown, people have developed new experiences and hobbies compared to their ‘norm’. One of the new norms is connecting with each other in new ways, whether that is joining your umpteenth virtual quiz of the year or playing a game with one another on your mobile, PC or console.
Gaming and eSports have become even more accessible to a wider range of people during this period, the statistics highlight this trend. For example, there has been an increase of 29% of time spent gaming in the UK in 2020, dig a little deeper and we find broadband companies such as BT, Virgin Media, TalkTalk, Vodafone, City Fibre and Zen Internet said they had all coped with the huge spike in demand on November 11th due to Gamers downloading large files in conjunction with the new Call of Duty game being released. Also, Twitch’s phenomenal rise as a gaming and entertainment channel continues to gather speed, they have had 195% increase in first time users since the first lockdown. In pretty much every aspect gaming engagement has increased across the board and that it set to continue with the launch of the next generation consoles, Sony Playstation 5 and the Microsoft Xbox Series X and S this month.
Both consoles are released in November, in what is set to be a continuation of the console wars which now spans four console generations and nearly two decades. As people now have more time to play games due to lockdown and social distancing, these consoles sold out their ‘preorders’ in record time which shows the huge demand for gaming, across a wide section of the population. Many studies have been done to showcase games are played by all ages and demographics and the stereotypes of a ‘gamer’ is tired and dated. There are between 2.2-2.5 billion people who play games globally and on average they are over 30 years old, this is a diverse audience which advertisers want to talk to.
These are some of the reasons why gaming is getting the attention of marketers. With the gaming space being so diverse, from Candy Crush to Star Wars, Call of Duty to Animal Crossing or Fifa to Fortnite, there is so much potential for brands to get involved and be innovative.
For these reasons and many more, please contact DGame to discuss how we can support advertisers get into gaming or to take their gaming strategies to the next level.
Sources
Statista
Twitch