Two years ago, the biggest thing in gaming was next-gen consoles. Now that they’re all gone, it’s all about online gaming. The competition to be the king of virtual gaming is heating up.

Companies that once dominated the market are losing out to new startups. Things that were once thought to be lost are gaining traction. Furthermore, the gaming audience is evolving. Some of the biggest trends in online gaming are:

Cloud Gaming

Cloud-based games are becoming more popular in 2023. It’s easy to see why – you don’t have to worry about downloading them on your PC or smartphone. Plus, you don’t need a ton of hardware to play your favourite games.

In the case of cloud games, all you have to do is sign up at a platform that offers the service. The top providers include Sony’s PlayStation Now service, NVIDIA’s GeForce Now service, Xbox and Steam.

The only downside is that if you want to enjoy cloud gaming, you need to have a good connection to the internet. If your connection is slow, you’ll get frustrated on sites that are prone to lag, like GeForce Now or Google Stadia.

Another thing to keep in mind is that each platform offers a certain number of games. For example, PlayStation now offers a limited number of exclusive games, and so does Microsoft. As a result, you may need to sign up for several platforms to enjoy unlimited games.

The Rise of Casual Gaming

Online gaming is becoming more and more popular because it’s no longer just for hardcore gamers. Most of the games available on Steam, Google and Apple Store cater to casual gamers of all kinds.

Think about Candy Crush Saga. It’s a game about crushing candy. It’s fun and you can play it over and over again. That’s one of the reasons why Candy Crush fans spent over $2.1 billion last year on in-products items.

Mobile Gaming

The popularity of mobile gaming has grown so much that some manufacturers are now selling gaming-centric phones. These gaming-centric phones have been designed from scratch to cater to gaming fans.

When it comes to Play Store games, there are thousands of different types of mobile games available on both Google and Apple. Whether you want to play a casual game like Subway Surfers or Candy Crush, or you want to choose a pro-sports game like Fortnite or Call of Duty Mobile, you have plenty of options.

VR and AR

Mark Zuckerberg thinks Virtual Reality is the way of the future for gaming. He’s invested in Metaverse games and has VR products for gamers, and some people think he’s a bit crazy about VR.

Virtual Reality (VR) has not yet been widely adopted by the general public, however, there has been considerable development in the past few years. A growing number of publishers are producing VR titles, such as Tetris: Effect; Beat Saber; Superhot VR; No Man’s Sky; and Star Wars: Squadrons.

Virtual Reality’s closest competitor is augmented reality (AR), and it’s doing just as well. Since Pokémon Go’s success, more AR-enabled games have been released, including Angry Birds Jurassic World Alive Ingress Prime

VR and AR are expected to gain traction over the next few years. But this will only be possible if content providers deliver high-quality experiences. Hardware manufacturers must also create cost-effective headsets.

Diversity in Gaming

Gone are the days when gaming was only for young men. According to statistics, women account for 65% of mobile gamers. The racial makeup of gamers is also changing.

If you look at the most popular Twitch streamers, you will see that there are a lot of Asian, Black, and Latino gamers. In this context, developers are changing their approach to in-game characters.

Most games now allow you to select an avatar based on gender or race. Developers are also releasing games with multiple characters. This allows you to choose a video game character that resembles you.

Esports

Electronic sports has grown from a niche sport in North America into a multi-billion-dollar global industry. By 2023, nearly every gamer has played an online game or is watching gaming content from a professional streamer.

Esports gaming is a collective of highly skilled players who collaborate to showcase their skills in exchange for monetary rewards. The remuneration is often so high that gaming has become an integral part of a person’s day-to-day life.

Play to Earn Games

Play to Earn Games rewards you for completing basic tasks. For instance, Axie Infinity rewards you with AXS coins for successfully breeding Axie characters. It also provides you with another coin named SLP which you can trade for genuine money on crypto exchanges.

Credit: The Tech Outlook