Gaming has exploded around the world, being enjoyed on consoles, computers, smartphones, and browsers in all shapes and sizes. The reach of the internet combined with the range of independent and major development studios has enabled just about anyone to find a title that’ll appeal to them. A considerable amount of the focus, though, goes to the premium end of the market.
In Europe and North America, major companies like Sony and Microsoft pedal their top-of-the-line games and consoles, alongside PC behemoths like Valve and its Index VR Kit. This isn’t to say that they ignore other markets, as was shown with the launch of the PSP, detailed here https://glidemag.wpengine.com/, which came to Japan before the US.
In fact, the biggest region for all of gaming isn’t one of this perceived premium, big-money markets of the west. The Asia Pacific stands as the dominant force across gaming media right now, particularly when it comes to the number of gamers in the region. With easy and helpful access points as well as a cultural acceptance for the potential of gaming, it’s become a hotbed for the newest mainstream entertainment medium.
The single largest region for gaming
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The European and North American markets boast hundreds of millions of gaming, and, yet, that pales in comparison to the player count across the Asia Pacific nations. There are said to be over 1.4 billion gamers in the far eastern region, making up more than half of the total gamers worldwide. Not only is there a huge player count, but the audiences are pumping a lot of money into the gaming industry at large.
Of the top five leading nations for gaming revenues, three are from the Asia Pacific region, one is the United States, and the other is Germany. China tops the chart with around $44 billion in revenues last year. In third, per the newzoo.com reports, was Japan with over $20.6 billion, followed by the $7.3 billion of the Korea Republic.
The player count and revenues earned as a result show a tremendous amount of growth in less than a decade. Numbers taken in April 2013 by comscore.com found that the number of daily gamers in the Asia Pacific was only a couple of million more than in Europe. As seen above, the biggest Asian gaming nations have also supplanted western players in terms of revenue.
A culture of embracing and growing computer gaming
Some of the most prominent Asia Pacific countries banned home consoles for years, so, mostly outside of Japan, people don’t tend to get into console gaming. It was all about playing games on computers, where there are communities of players and experts alongside huge libraries of games. Now, smartphone gaming continues to become a more and more powerful entity, with it also being very accessible.
Accessibility is the primary driver of new gaming platforms: it was true of smartphone gaming, and now it’s the case with online gambling. Through the website portal https://www.asiabet.org/, playing slots, roulette, blackjack, baccarat, and betting on sports has become easier. This is because the site has tailored sections for each nation and offers in-depth guides. Being available online, anyone can go to their national page and find where and how to gamble online, allowing the sector to take off in the Asia Pacific.
That’s the latest form of gaming to find success through being widely available. However, it all started with the establishment of thousands of PC gaming LAN centers around the continent. These venues are most prevalent in the Korea Republic, where you can venture into a ‘PC Bang,’ per pcworld.com, rent a computer, and play the most popular games. The model of renting hardware in a café for what is roughly $1 per hour makes gaming so accessible that anyone can get involved. It’s this similar low or zero-cost of entry model that makes mobile gaming so big here, too.
Access and acceptance forging some of the greatest gamers in the world
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Right now, gaming and spectator sports are abuzz with the hype surrounding eSports. The professional competitive gaming scene has grown into a $1 billion industry worldwide, forcing everyone from traditional sports broadcasters to major investors to get involved. Not only is the Asia Pacific loaded with spectators and players, but it’s producing many of the best players and teams in the world.
In the earnings by country ranking, the US sits atop with around $167 million earned by over 19,000 players at organized events. China and the Korea Republic sit second and third, with $128 million and $100 million from just 4,800 and 4,100 earning players, respectively. Of course, these are merely the ranked players: in China, there are some 170 million eSports players and fans combined.
Accessibility has been key to this dominance in professional circles. As stated above, gaming is widely adopted, with the abundance of internet cafés and gaming cafés being major drivers of what is essentially grassroots gaming. Furthermore, much like football in Europe or basketball in the US, gaming is seen as a potential gateway from low-income life to stardom on the big stage. In Singapore, gaming facilities have been set up across the country with government support, leading to it becoming a hub for eSports in the region.
The Asia Pacific has become the dominant force across gaming media because its nations support the activity and make it so accessible to all. In the west, the focus is on the premium price tags, but in the east, the lack of an entry cost has enabled more spending and more gaming.
