The rise of social media has been the phenomenon of the past two decades, the bigger services have been able to boast millions of active users accounting for some 30% of the worlds total population showing just how big the platforms have become – and with the huge number of users, it shows just how influential these platforms can be too which is often seen through the widespread success of social influencers and how popular they have become. One of the many areas that have benefitted greatly from the success of social media, however, has been gaming – previously a bit of a niche approach for many, gaming has become a new phenomenon in itself.
Part of the reason for the success has been the ability to share – players are able to share any information for many of the games they’re playing from the successes and big wins they’re experiencing to sharing to gain extra lives in the game which has become a common factor for mobile titles – this change had brought more visibility than ever, soon after it saw many who would usually fall out of the target and regular demographic start to take part in different forms of mobile gaming as the market quickly evolved from being a younger teen male-dominated market to something primarily played by women over between the ages of 25 and 34 which now make up over half of the entire mobile gaming market.
This growth has also extended to other parts of the gaming market that branch out a little such as betting sites – the ability to share ongoing bets or to be involved in groups that watch games live and discuss what’s happening in real time has become a real asset to many and has changed the way many players look at the games – even when larger changes are made to rules and regulations such as the recent shifts in Gamstop aimed at making participation options more difficult for players, betting sites not covered by the regulation still remain very popular and very well promoted across social media.
The rise of video social media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram have pushed this even further – where other platforms such as Facebook and Twitter were originally focussed on imagery and text the development and evolution of these primarily visual in video platforms have made sharing much easier and with the other platforms integrating video more and more this continues to be true, and newer platforms popping up over the past decade such as Twitch have created a kind of social hub solely focussed on gaming too. Consoles have started to catch up too as the past few years have seen many introduce more social integration into the platforms too and encourage sharing as much as possible – our gaming efforts have become more social and more shareable over time and will continue to become a main part of the future in gaming too particularly as many stars within competitive gaming are becoming household names for many.
