A Virtual Reality with a cherishing community backing it up, Gaming an outburst that is taking the world by storm. For many gaming is not only a hobby or an excuse to kill time, instead, gaming is a complete lifestyle, driven by passion and mastered with sheer determination.

However, gaming is not also just a matter of fun and games but an opportunity to generate a very lucrative income, with many players traveling all over the world to take part in various e-sports events to showcase their skills and abilities.

From the emergence of arcade and fighting games in the late 80s and 90s to the astounding introduction of gaming consoles and computers, as well mobile gaming has created easy access for gamers across the world. Gaming has been under the limelight for quite some time now, maturing into a billion-dollar industry, and it is only safe to say that the faction of gaming has had a global impact, gaining popularity all over the world and for sure will continue to do so. Currently, the industry has raised a global revenue of 154.6 Billion in the financial year, with the industry being heavily dominated by its Asian counterparts in comparison with the western circle. Having said that, let us move towards the top 5 gaming countries for the year 2022.

China:

China could be considered as the beacon of gaming accessories, due to the country’s expertise in mass production, worldwide it is the biggest manufacturing industry and a key producer and seller of graphic cards and other key gaming equipment to the global gaming ring.

Apart from the manufacturing industry and gaming community, Tencent a Chinese Tech company has also become a major stakeholder in the global gaming society, because of the company’s ownership and shares in some of the world’s leading game development studios and game applications, for instance, Players Unknown Battle Grounds, Riot Games, Clash of Clans as well as a 40% share in Epic Games and 5% share in Blizzard Entertainment respectively.

Computer Gaming is a supreme force in China with people enjoying games like Counter-Strike, League of Legends, and World of WarCraft in various internet cafes, but this trend may be on the decline because a big chunk of gamers in China are more likely to play games on mobile phones, the results of a study showed that 459 million people in China play mobile games, which is the equivalent of the population of the United States and Japan and a great justification to why the country alone accounts for 25% of the global gaming market. In the first half of the financial year, the Chinese Gaming Industry caused a revenue of 15.4 billion US dollars, 60% of which came from mobile gaming while PC and Console gaming accounted for 30% of the total revenue generated.

USA:

In the United States, the gaming community has been growing and evolved to such an extent that the narrative of gamers being considered as known it all tech-nerds has been altered to represent a wide demographic audience, whit the tally of gamers reaching a whopping 191.2 million players, which is 60% of the country’s total population. In the States, there is a widespread of people who enjoy gaming as a part of their daily routine, from young teens to senior citizens of age 65 and above.

Over the course of previous years, gaming has become a mainstream source of entertainment, with players enjoying a wide variety of games, from mobile gaming to PC gaming, from sports games to fighting games or warfare simulations every one has an opportunity to experience the world of virtual reality. In the United States, 51 % population of the gaming community uses mobile devices as a medium to play games, which is highest in compersion to other formats. 25% use gaming PCs and 20% of players prefer to use gaming consoles to play their games of choice. An average gamer in the U.S.A is said to spend around 49 minutes gaming on basic weekdays to 90 minutes on weekends.

Gaming is also becoming a great career choice for many aspiring teens. With the rise of e-sports and the increasing number of players going pro, gaming for sure is flourishing and proving to be a great career choice for many. As many professional gamers have made a whole career of playing their favorite games by competing in various e-sports events and earning millions of dollars. Streaming is also a great alternative to generate a steady income if a person does not want to deal with the pressure of competing in a high profile gaming event, he can certainly try to make a career by streaming on different platforms and casually playing his favorite games and having a good time, Streaming is also reaching new heights of popularity each day and Professional Streamers are finally getting the due attention and respect they so rightfully deserve, the recent statistics have shown that the streaming services like Twitch and Youtube are getting an average viewership of 660 million per month in the USA.

Japan:

The Japanese gaming community is among the more mature ones around the globe, with a whole generation growing up playing video games, a community that once accounted for 20% of the whole gaming industry. But still, Japan is the third-largest gaming community in the world having a community of approximately 75.1 million gamers.

Previously games were only restricted to arcades, but the Japanese revolutionized the gaming industry in the late 80s when Nintendo released their first home console named Famicom thus the Japanese became the pioneers of console gaming, and it was due to the existence of Nintendo and Sega that Japan was placed on the world map as a major hub of gaming. The gaming community in Japan is majorly console-centric, having said that, the main reason why the Japanese gaming community may be so console-oriented is that console gaming originated from Japan in a time which was way before PC gaming was a thing, and even now PC parts in Japan are quite expensive in comparison to a gaming console.

So why would anyone spend more money and stress to maintain specifications and additional software, than to own a gaming console which is available more cheaply and easy to maintain, although it certainly does not mean that other formats of gaming are overlooked, Japan is still quite a profitable market for PC gaming because most the Japanese game developers are still intending to port their most high-profile games to the platform, for instance, Yakuza: Like a Dragon, which is available on steam to play.  Mobile gaming also has a marketplace as the revenue for ios and android google play has increased 15% annually over the past year.

Japan is also a great attraction for game developers, the Japanese have always been the first ones to make technological advancements and in this new age of technology, Japan is like the holy grail of game development to the extent that almost 50 % of the games in the global market are developed by Japanese game developers due to which the gaming industry is thriving, creating revenue of 22.09 billion US dollars annually.

Germany:

Germany is a major landmark for any gaming studio or game developer to gain a serious competitive advantage. Germans are mad gamers, building a community of over 46.12 million gamers which is complete madness and the fourth-largest gaming community in the world.

Mobile gaming is on the rise since 2020 and is gaining some serious popularity in the German community, as 19.5 million people in Germany tend to play games on their mobile devices, and seeing such a positive response from the gaming community there is also a lot of mobile games, being developed and published by German developers, for instance, Jelly Splash, and Ghost Detectives, which are developed by Wooga, a mobile gaming company based in Berlin, Germany. Apart from mobile gaming, PC gaming is also a big trend as 42% of the gaming faction uses gaming PCs as the primary source for catering to their gaming needs, and also the country has been a key venue to host some great e-sports events like ESA Cologne and Major for CS:GO, a game which is relatively quite popular in the german gaming circle. In terms of game preference, germans are prone to play games with historical storylines and warfare simulations.

With competitive labor costs and strong work ethics, Germany has also become a great attraction for many game developing companies, which has created a great environment to promote the game development industry, due to which some big names are now associated with the german gaming community, for instance, Ubisoft Berlin which is known for their Far Cry series franchise, Crytek known for Crysis franchise and Warface among many others.

The gaming industry in Germany is also quite lucrative generating total revenue of 5.87 billion US dollars, out of which the most high-value revenue stream is of in-game purchases.

South Korea:

The South Korean gaming community is one of the proudest gaming communities known worldwide, which has effortlessly dominated the whole fighting games genre for more than a decade and are still reigning supreme, by producing some great talent like Knee, JDCR, and Qudans, some of the most feared names in the whole Tekken scene.

Though the Korean gaming community has seen many successes the reason behind this is quite simple, the gaming faction has stuck to its roots, meaning that arcades are still a big thing in the country, South Korea is among the few countries that have preserved the whole culture of arcade gaming, Arcades are still seen as a primary source of gaming, and is the key binding force which has kept the whole community intact. Even to this day, the arcades are packed with gaming enthusiasts, and for many pro players, gaming arcades are like practice grounds, where they compete against the finest player of the game in their quest to harness new skills and abilities.

With such a strong background, and the vast majority of e-sports competitions, choosing gaming as a career in South Korea can pay some great dividends as going pro in a game that you are so aware of can provide multiple opportunities to travel the world and win millions and millions worth of cash prizes or become a professional streamer, to stream a wide array of games and generate a decent income while simultaneously increasing their popularity to the level of being called a celebrity and getting some highly paid endorsement deals.

The South Korean gaming industry is also a great aid to the country’s economy creating revenue of 7.55 billion US dollars and with a growing community of almost 33.1 million players, South Korea is set to win big in e-sports at the international level.

Summary:

For many gaming might be a hobby and for some, it may be a complete addiction, a lifestyle, but one thing is for sure, this humble activity has brought people together from all over the world and built a nourishing and strong community. Gaming is a reality caretaking to the needs of many, whether it may be an opportunity to kill time or a career to build upon, it has a significant status. Since its inception gaming evolved immensely, which is an indication that gaming has a future and is meant to be enjoyed and cherished by many generations to come.

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