Gaming: Heartcore Consumer Technology Trends 2021

Covid-19 was another tailwind to the gaming industry.

Videogames now represent a bigger industry than movies and North-American sports COMBINED, thanks to the pandemic.

(Un)surprisingly, older people were the ones playing more.

Older demographics are turning to games more often as they find themselves with more time they can no longer spend on dining out or attending live events.

Mobile gaming performed particularly well.

Consumer spend on Mobile is up 26% Year-on-Year, and downloads are up 32.9% Year-on-Year.

6 mobile games account for 12% of total revenues.

Mobile gaming continues to be driven by a strong power law: 0.00001% of games account for 12% of total revenues! PUBG leading the way. Pokémon Go still (surprisingly) performing extremely well.

PUBG Mobile: $2.6B

Honor of Kings: $2.5B

Pokémon Go: $1.2B

Coin Master: $1.1B

Roblox: $1.1B

Monster Strike: $0.9B

As the world shut down, players socialized online.

Blurring lines between games and social networks: gamers increasingly join virtual worlds to wander & socialize. In 2020 games increasingly offered a "safe space" in the midst of traumatic events. We're seeing new features are purposely shipped for social interactions.

New virtual worlds are burgeoning.

The metaverse remains a trillion-dollar opportunity, and we keep seeing new teams going after this massive opportunity.

Consumers are increasingly co-creating games.

The traditional game development pipeline is very rigid and not tailored to create massive open world experiences. Gaming platforms are now focussed on bringing a new generation of game-makers to game-making as evidenced by Roblox's ecosystem.

Roblox Game Ecosystem Concentration

10% | Top 50M = 100% of revenues

30% | Top 500 Games = 90% of revenues

20% | Top 50 Games = 60% of revenues

30% | Top 10 Games = 40% of revenues

10% | Top Game is 10% of revenues

Communication is a critical part of social gaming.

Twitch & Discord experienced massive growth throughout the year.

Crypto could increase IP crossovers relevance.

Sorare is a fantasy soccer game, where players buy, trade, and manage a virtual team with digital player cards (NFTs). The game uses blockchain technology based on Ethereum.

NBA Top Shot is a blockchain-based platform where people can buy, sell, and trade numbered versions of officially-licensed video highlights from NBA games.