Understanding The Gaming Industry – Social Interactions, Monetization, And Key Drivers Behind Growth

Gaming has become a huge industry with a wide demographic reach. People of all ages play videogames and interact with each other daily through digital gaming platforms, forums, and live-streaming services. This thesis focuses on giving a thorough understanding of the gaming industry focusing on the PC and console segments, along with exploring the possibilities that have opened for other sectors to tap into the growth of gaming. Emphasis is placed upon major companies operating on the market and distribution channels. The link between the gaming market and live streaming is examined to understand the social motivations and new marketing avenues. Additionally, the research explores the outlook of the industry, future revenue models and new technologies. The methodology of the research is a literature review mixed with observations of data from live-streaming and digital service platforms. The focus is on PC and console segments of the market. A mind map of gaming consumption is constructed to illustrate the consumer position on the market for video games. The thesis found strong correlation between digital service platforms and live-streaming platforms as key factors behind growth. Additionally, technological progress, standardization and accessibility were found important. Gaming was examined to be expanding to wider demographics in regarding both age and gender. The growing market poses interesting opportunities for future research as the industry encompasses multiple facets of other popular sectors and shows signs of continued growth and expanded reach. The study investigated social aspects of gaming and industry transformations to shed light on growth factors