Video game industry

The expo floor at the 2010 Game Developers Conference

The video game industry is the tertiary and quaternary sectors of the entertainment industry that specialize in the development, marketing, distribution, monetization and consumer feedback of video games. The industry encompasses dozens of job disciplines and thousands of jobs worldwide.[1]

The video game industry has grown from niche to mainstream.[2] As of July 2018, video games generated US$134.9 billion annually in global sales.[3] In the US, the industry earned about $9.5 billion in 2007, $11.7 billion in 2008, and US$25.1 billion in 2010,[4] according to the ESA annual report. Research from Ampere Analysis indicated three points: the sector has consistently grown since at least 2015 and expanded 26% from 2019 to 2021, to a record $191 billion; the global games and services market is forecast to shrink 1.2% annually to $188 billion in 2022; the industry is not recession-proof.[5]

The industry has influenced the technological advancement of personal computers through sound cards, graphics cards and 3D graphic accelerators, CPUs, and co-processors like PhysX.[citation needed] Sound cards, for example, were originally developed for games and then improved for adoptation by the music industry.[citation needed]

  1. ^ Zackariasson, P. and Wilson, T.L. eds. (2012). The Video Game Industry: Formation, Present State, and Future. New York: Routledge.
  2. ^ "New ESA Report Shows Gaming Is No Longer A Niche Market". TheGamer. July 25, 2020. Archived from the original on January 12, 2021. Retrieved December 16, 2020.
  3. ^ "Key Numbers". newzoo.com. Archived from the original on May 9, 2019. Retrieved August 21, 2021.
  4. ^ "ESA: Facts and figures about the gaming industry in 2010". TechSpot. June 9, 2011. Archived from the original on June 12, 2021. Retrieved December 16, 2020.
  5. ^ Browne, Ryan (July 7, 2022). "Video game sales set to fall for first time in years as industry braces for recession". CNBC. Archived from the original on August 9, 2022. Retrieved August 9, 2022.