Why The Pandemic Led To A Rise In Video Game Sales
My parents never allowed video games in our home. Mom and Dad said they were too expensive and said that it would hinder my brain and diminish my creativity. Since I had no sway or power, I was left to use my friends' consoles. Snowy afternoons were spent sitting in front of televisions, competing in intense battles of 2K and Madden. I loved the enthralling nature of video games, the all-encompassing attention-grabbing world that video games suck you into.
The United States population feels that same love for video games that I once did. Every year, billions of dollars are spent in and around the video game industry, and unsurprisingly, to some, revenue in this industry has only increased. Video games and society as a whole have changed drastically since 2010. New and improved technology, fresh consoles, and screen addiction are at their all-time highs. These two charts show that video game revenue has only grown over the past thirteen years.
The COVID-19 pandemic changed planet Earth as we know it, with global shutdowns and quarantines taking place for months. The pandemic also caused a dramatic shift in video game sales compared to years prior. From 2010 to 2020, video game sales reached an average of 1.25 billion dollars per month. These numbers are noticeably lower than video game revenue following the outbreak of COVID-19, which reached an average of 4.4 billion dollars per month. Therefore, it’s clear that being confined to one’s home led the American population to turn to gaming.
In May 2020, my brother and I pulled the metaphorical trigger and bought a lightly used PS4. Let me tell you, one go around on that console, and I was hooked. We loved the camaraderie and competition that came with in-person gaming. We loved to waste hours upon hours, days upon days, working toward improving our Call of Duty or GTA skills. Much like my brother and I, Americans of all ages were spending more and more time in front of screens playing video games of all sorts.
Additionally, as evidenced by this chart of monthly retail revenue from 2010-2023, the holiday season consistently sees a significant spike in revenue. This trend is due primarily to the release of new games, which typically arrive in late November to early December. Iconic game series like Call of Duty and Halo have become synonymous with an end-of-the-year release. Also, the holiday season is famously known for gift giving, as parents often look to new video game releases to gift to their children. These two crucial factors make November and December more than double the average of the other ten months of the year. In congruence with the spike seen by the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s unsurprising that December 2020 brought in 7.63 billion dollars in video game revenue.
However, according to Newhouse Professor Edecio Martinez, the dramatic rise in video game revenue is also due to a greater boom in other areas of the video game industry. “You have people now who are streaming the games that they play, and they generate revenue. You know, either through subscriptions and donations or sponsorships. So, there is a market to make money off of playing video games, making video games, and creating video game tournaments,” said Martinez.
In the years to come, it’s unclear what’s to come in video game sales. Will they continue to stay strong at around four billion dollars a month or diminish to where video game revenue was before the pandemic? If I had to make a prediction, I would guess that video game revenue will continue to increase. Young people today are as addicted to screen time as ever, and I don’t see that trend going down anytime soon. With improving technology implemented every day, the video game industry continues to look to grow.