Social Gaming Rising. And Rising. And Rising

Over the past few years social gaming has gone boom. It’s grown quicker than the Ibrahimovic shot a guy from the other side of the world has just rifled past you on Xbox live, and taking the industry higher than the Cristiano Ronaldo shot you’ve ballooned over the bar.

Since around 2010 the industry has skyrocketed with the release of the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 only enhancing that further, that’s not to mention Facebook.

Whilst the likes of Minecraft and World of Warcraft have long been associated with social gaming, but the likes of Farmville have opened it up to a whole new audience.

And you’d be surprised to what degree too. In 2012 around 58% of social gamers were over the age of 40, banishing the idea that gaming was limited to teenagers locked in their bedroom, whilst 8% of those were using mobile.

In the three years between, that has changed dramatically with mobile gaming expected to be worth over $100billion in the next few years with the likes of Candy Crush offering in-game prizes and online casinos giving away iPads as FURTHER incentives, we can expect to see the market significantly grow in competitiveness.

Texas Hold’Em has been a growing social game for some time now and has overtaken Farmville in the new age Facebook is slowly losing its touch with games. It’s no real surprise to see that social gaming is right on trend right now sitting right up there in both online and offline gaming. The ability to both play some of the best games on the market, as well as socialise with friends, or indeed someone halfway across the world, is something of real appeal, diminishing the stigma of gaming being ‘geeky’ or ‘nerdy’.

Of course for brands as well it can be a hugely profitable move. Not only does it create brand awareness through shares to friends, but also in game add-ons is a hugely lucrative market.

It’s essentially an advert, but not one that lasts 30 seconds, but hours upon hours, across days.

And social gaming is only, like that Cristiano Ronaldo shot against the guy from the other side of the world, going to expand further. The power of the internet is creating new opportunities every day, exciting gamers no end whether it be on your iPhone, desktop or console. Who knows where it could go next, but one thing’s for sure, everybody will be talking about it together.