How can we forget the spring of 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic hit the world and left a huge impact on our lives. The stay-at-home era influenced almost every industry and its conduct and that includes gaming too! The post-quarantine effects can be witnessed clearly in our lifestyles today.
The extensive lockdown measures and stay-at-home conduct compelled people to spend many hours on their screens, and that screen time includes nearly every screen activity, from social media to videos, gaming to the literature regarding COVID-19. However, digital gaming is what made people feel productive. It kept the screen users engaged with their interests intact and minds present. In fact, many people used digital gaming to keep themselves sane under unexpected circumstances.
The pandemic also made gaming industries launch new collections of interesting and fun digital games. According to statistics obtained by different surveys, it is concluded that nearly one-third of the screen users got a subscription to a video gaming service using a cloud gaming service or a virtual sporting event for the first time. So, not only gaming but cloud gaming services gained extensive popularity which was not very popular before the COVID-19 pandemic.
What is CTV Gaming?
CTV Gaming stands for Connected TV Gaming. Connected TV (CTV) is extensively linked with streaming devices and this is the idea that CTV is contributing to its immense popularity among the masses. The idea of watching the content published over Netflix, YouTube, Disney, etc. on big screens of television is actually compelling people to buy CTVs. Apart from the video content, digital gaming stands as the second-largest category that people use over CTVs. The gaming apps stand as the strong vertical besides video streaming on Connected Television.
CTV gaming is a newly emerging industry and it has a very long way to go and grow. The internet-connected televisions support the content of different apps (Video streaming apps, gaming apps, etc.) on the screen. The CTV Gaming actually follows the format of console gaming but provides a gaming experience like that of mobile. However, it is different from the video games being played on Nintendo, Xbox and other consoles as these represent the high gaming end on TV but CTV gaming is actually an extended form of mobile gaming to be played by virtue of a CTV platform like the like Playcent Games.
The Scope of CTV and Contribution of CTV Gaming
The CTV platform is not solely restricted to watch TV content, movies, and other video content but the platform is also being utilized for playing highly engaging games that keep the user hooked to the screens for hours. In fact, the growth of the CTV market can be enhanced with the development of CTV gaming. However, presently there is a very small percentage of game apps that constitute the total weightage of apps over CTV.
Well, there is a lot of potential in this area and gaming industries can launch their relevant content into the market. The prediction is the rise in demand for games available at the fingertips and to be played on big TV screens instead of tiny smartphones. The fact to be spoken, the launch of interactive games can really take over the market and even overshadow the news or TV shows running in the background.
Since CTV gaming has been a recent innovation, there are just a few big names in the market who are molding the industry on their own. However, these are the ones who are exhibiting their potential and projecting their intentions of expanding CTV Gaming as well as capitalizing on their experience as mobile game developers.
Explosive Growth of CTV Gaming
Which gamer would miss a chance to play their favorite game on a bigger screen, enjoying higher quality resolution that’ll revolutionize their gaming experience altogether? The only crunch here is that the technology is still new and not many games are available on the platform just yet.
However, despite being new, CTV gaming has observed explosive growth this year. Zemoga, a digital ad agency published a report according to which the CTV gaming industry will grow exponentially to become a $120 billion industry by 2022, and a massive $200 billion industry by 2024, and might overtake pay-TV. The number of users who subscribed to two or more CTV-related services has increased by 130% since 2014. About 7,000 CTV apps are already available today and the number keeps on growing. The growth seems to be unstoppable.
These figures may look huge but trust us when we say, the true potential of CTV gaming is still untapped.
Connected TV gaming provides a whole new level of gaming experience that is very appealing for the young generation. Where the lockdown measures due to the pandemic opened gateways for the emergence of CTV gaming as a distinct industry, the post-pandemic world is offering more opportunities for the growth of this industry.