By this point, no one should doubt that the impact of COVID-19 will force industries to adapt to a new normal on a global scale. In late 2019, Deloitte’s Digital media trends survey, the organization saw an upwards shift in the demand for media and entertainment (M&E) through purchases, subscriptions, and free options subsidized by ads, among other things.
Yet in early 2020, the effects of a spreading pandemic made it clear that a second survey was needed to account for the unexpected necessity to stay home to flatten the curve. Deloitte focused again on US consumers and examined five generations of users: Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, Boomers, and Matures.
Media Consumption Is More Fluid, But So Too Is Fatigue
One of the biggest differences between a pre and post COVID world is that people have more time on their hands to watch, listen, and play games. Social viewing, livestreaming, and more have made media consumption a fluid affair that occurs around the clock, which should come as no surprise as people were initially forced to sit at home and do their part by not going out.
Smartphones, tablets, smart TVs, laptops, and other devices provide ways to access media and games at virtually any moment in the home. Not only is there a broad range of ways to consume media, but more and more competitors are entering the market to capture consumer spending. As seen in the image below, the number of paid media and entertainment subscriptions per age group varies but are clearly an ingrained part of life among all users.
Yet with so much time to consume media, fatigue will inevitably set in, and the costs for maintaining all subscriptions cannot be justified. As a result, Millennials, Gen Z, and Gen X all stated plans to cut back on their overall subscriptions. While other forms of M&E may be seeing a reduction in consumer spending as a subscription service, video games have seen nothing but growth during the pandemic.
We Consume Media & Entertainment, But Engage With Games
Prior to the pandemic, video games were already in a good place of growth and popularity. The Nintendo Switch has been a resounding success, Sony and Microsoft are building hype with their next generation of consoles, and mobile gaming continues to expand at a tremendous rate around the world with the increased availability of smart devices.
With the onset of the pandemic, games remain popular, but behaviors have changed. Binge-gaming, defined as playing of an average of 3.3 hours per session, is up among Gen Z and Millennials, and other gaming activities have accelerated by up to 75% by some measures.
As social distancing forces people to remain away from friends and family, games are also being used to provide a virtual replacement in some way, with 34% of respondents indicating they are playing games with family more often, and 27% to socially connect with others.
Although one might simply see the increase in available time as logical for playing more video games, it should be noted as well that a third of US consumers, along with roughly half of all Gen Z and Millennial respondents, describe video games as having helped get them through a difficult time. With so much going on in the global scene, this is a point that deserves further examination later.
The Audience For Video Game Streaming Grows As Well
Playing video games is on the rise during the pandemic, and so too is watching others do the same. Twitch, the current top platform for streamers of games, music, just chatting, and more has seen the most growth during the pandemic. The total number of hours watched has jumped a massive 50% between March and April, and 101% year over year.
Now, the pandemic is certainly one reason that this may be occurring, but it should also be noted that Twitch drops are becoming more prevalent, and for some of the biggest games. VALORANT, by Riot Games, brought players to view drop-enabled channels en masse while hopefully viewers eagerly awaited to be rewarded with a beta access key to the new tactical shooter. Still, the growth of game streaming cannot be ignored, though it would be useful to examine how new streamers have done, compared to well-established performers, such as Michael “Shroud” Grzesiek, pictured below.
Experiencing Games Solo, To Socialize, And As A Viewer – What Will Remain Once The Pandemic Is Over?
Obviously, we cannot state with any certainty what the future will look like, however, these last few months have been a gateway for many users into digital gaming activities that were completely unknown to them prior to mass lockdowns and periods of self-isolation.
During this time, a massive 38% of all consumers surveyed stated that they tried a new digital activity or subscription for the first time ever. Some will likely be able to drop these new activities completely in favor of returning to their old lives, but another portion will embrace their new discoveries, and these individuals are what may drive the next few years of how games are produced, released, and experienced by players.
The big questions left to ask about the future relate to this point exactly, since it is likely that some, or many of these “new” consumers will remain. How much more time will consumers have in the future to devote to video gaming and livestreaming services? Will streamers who have risen to prominence in this time with a new audience retain those viewers, or will the entire streaming scene face a collective downturn in viewers?
These are all questions that will be addressed, though first this pandemic needs to be put under control in the USA, and there is certainly no timetable for when that might occur.
Source: Deloitte Insights, “Digital media trends survey, 14th edition”
NEXT: Adding No Man’s Sky To Xbox Game Pass Brought In Over A Million New Players
