Why is gaming dominating the entertainment industry?

As an interactive medium, empowering creators to building community – and vying with TikTok as the social media platform of choice – gaming is popular culture for gen Z.

Gaming has become the number one form of entertainment globally, surpassing music and Hollywood in terms of revenue. According to Reuters, revenue from the global gaming market is expected to rise 2.6 percent to US$187.7 billion in 2023.

“Gaming is like what MTV was in the late 80s, early 90s. It is at the centre of youth culture,” declared Felix LaHaye, founder and CEO of United Esports, at our Toronto event in June.

Part of this popularity, theorised Morgan McGuire, chief scientist at Roblox, is that gaming is “the ultimate form of social media”.

“It’s what sci-fi has for so long promised us – these virtual worlds that we can go into and have all of our facial expressions; all of our hand gestures; all the nuance.”

Morgan argued that gaming environments permit meaningful social connection in a way text-based social media does not. The interactive nature of games facilitates community in a much richer way.

Power to the (gamer) people

Another aspect of the rise of gaming is the power it gives to the gaming community.

KreekCraft and other creators are growing fan bases by streaming content they build within virtual worlds such as Roblox and Minecraft. This is where gaming is headed, said Nicole Du Cane Spencer, VP of partnerships at Misfits Gaming, a company that represents creators and helps them develop their brand.

Nicole explained that these creators can expand their brands beyond digital: “Think of MrBeast Feastables and Prime … We’re gonna see more of that; how these massive creators are going outside of digital, and leveraging their IP and their brand name.”

These gaming experts discussed how user-generated content (UGC) and streaming have made gaming social and mainstream.

They also reflected on how the convergence of gaming, music, social media and streaming has led to diverse content.

Pixel Playground co-founder and creative director KreekCraft, Misfits Gaming VP of partnerships Nicole Du Cane Spencer and Roblox chief scientist Morgan McGuire were in conversation with United Esports founder and CEO Felix LaHaye on ContentMakers at Collision 2023.

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Main image of a retro games console: Web Summit