Top Gaming Trends of 2022 & 2023
Roblox Bedwars
Roblox Bedwars is a game on the Roblox platform where players are dropped into a world of swords and guns with the goal of being the last one standing. The game is a battle royale-style game where players must scavenge for weapons and armor to protect themselves and take out their opponents.
Kaiju Paradise
Kaiju Paradise is a Roblox game created by T Z B Studio in 2021 as a prototype for the studio's upcoming game called The Final Experiment. The game features a multiplayer fighting experience and has received over 60 million visits since its launch.
Townstar
Townstar is a play-to-earn (P2E) NFT game developed by Gala Games and built on the Ethereum blockchain. The game is based on competitive farming similar to Farmville.
Splinterlands
Splinterlands is an NFT card game that was designed by top players of Magic: The Gathering. The game is a strategy game that is set in a post-apocalyptic world where players must gather resources and build armies to take over territories.
Zed Run
Zed Run is an NFT horse racing game built on Ethereum blockchain technology. Within the game, players can buy, sell, or breed their digital NFT racehorse.
Metafy
Metafy is a platform to help gamers improve their performance. It allows gamers to book 1-on-1 coaching sessions with top gamers in a game they're trying to master.
Sorare
Sorare is a digital card game for football based on the Ethereum blockchain technology. Players buy, trade, or collect cards within the soccer NFT platform.
Gods Unchained
Gods Unchained is a digital collectible card game. The game is based on the Ethereum blockchain and allows players to battle each other for control of powerful mythical creatures.
Betano
Betano is a fast-growing European online betting or digital sports betting company with headquarters in Greece. It is known for its seamless user experience in both sports betting and a wide range of casino games.
Backbone Controller
The Backbone Controller is a gaming device that allows you to slot in your iPhone and turn it into a gaming console for a better mobile gaming experience. Android phones can also be hooked up using a Lightning-to-USB cable.
Prime Gaming
Prime Gaming is a subscription service for gamers offered by Amazon. For a monthly fee, users get subscriptions for Amazon Prime and Twitch plus free games and in-game rewards.
Signulous
Signulous is a cloud-based SaaS platform that allows users to install custom apps on their iOS device. The platform offers an easy way to install apps like iPoGo that are not available on the App Store.
Skinport
Skinport is an online marketplace for buying and selling CS:GO skins using real money. The virtual items are not bound to the user's Steam account so it can be traded with other players.
Sportingbet
Sportingbet is a website that offers betting on a variety of sports. Customers can place bets on events such as football, tennis, and horse racing, and can also bet on the outcome of political elections or the results of reality TV shows.
Leetify
Leetify is a software designed to help improve CS:GO (Counter-Strike: Global Offensive) gamers improve their performance. The software uses AI to analyze matches to compare performance and provide feedback on how to win.
Honkai
Honkai is a 3D action RPG game by miHoYo and was originally released in China in 2016. The game combines a variety of genres and features gacha mechanics. It has gained popularity in the United States and Europe in recent years.
Finger Sleeve
A finger sleeve is a device that is worn on the finger to protect it from heat. The sleeve is made of a heat-resistant material and is meant to be used when cooking or grilling.
WeMod
WeMod is a platform that connects creators with gamers to use their Mods, which are tweaks that change how things look or behave in games. The platform is known to offer thousands of free cheats and trainers for games that players love.
Winbet
Winbet is a platform that allows users to bet on a variety of sports and other events. The site offers betting options for a variety of sports, including football, basketball, and cricket, as well as other events, such as the Oscars and the Eurovision Song Contest.
Vroid Studio
VRoid Studio is a 3D character creator and animation app. It allows users to create and animate 3D characters, and then share them online. The app is free to download and use, and includes a variety of features for character creation and animation.
Gaming Earbuds
Gaming earbuds are earbuds that are designed specifically for gaming. The earbuds typically have a more spacious soundstage to create an immersive gaming experience and may also have features such as noise cancellation and surround sound.
Mecabricks
Mecabricks is a web-based 3D modeling platform that allows users to create, share, and customize 3D LEGO models. The platform is designed to be easy to use, with a simple interface and a wide variety of models to choose from.
Gacha Game
Gacha games are video games where players can earn random rewards by playing. The games are often free to play, but include microtransactions in order to get better rewards. The games have become popular in mobile gaming, and often have anime-inspired art styles.
Game Pass
Game Pass is a subscription service that allows users to access a library of video games for a monthly fee. The service is often offered as an add-on to a console's online service, and allows users to download and play games from the library as many times as they want.
Mod Pass
Mod Pass is a type of subscription service for video games that allows users ongoing access to MODS (Macros On Demand) to their existing Strike Pack controller device. The MODS achieve results that are typically too difficult to do by hand in the game.
VR Prescription Glasses
VR prescription glasses are glasses that have been designed to work with virtual reality headsets. The glasses are meant to provide a more immersive experience by blocking out external light and providing a wider field of view.
The Growth of Video Game Playbacks
Consumers report that photo anxiety increasingly interferes with many memorable events since people are constantly wondering if they should be taking a picture rather than enjoying the experience. But as cameras and wearables get more common, it will be more and more practical to just record everything and then go back and select the best moments after the fact.
Part of the issue is that it's hard to snap a photo at the perfect second. A recent change in how iPhones take pictures solves some of this: the photo is actually a 3-second video (with the 3-second window starting just before the button press), so it's possible to go back frame-by-frame and capture the perfect moment. This idea is now extending to online games, where a new service, Gif Your Game, lets players convert perfectly-timed gameplay videos into easily shareable GIFs that they can then post on Discord, Reddit, and Twitter.
Sharable snippets have been an increasingly important driver of cultural awareness in the last few years; an apt reaction GIFs play the same kind of linguistic role today that a well-chosen Bible verse might have played in the 19th century. And media companies know that GIFs are a powerful marketing tool, a low-cost means of raising awareness, and of promoting peer endorsement.
For games, traditional GIF generation was challenging, because recording the screen could introduce performance issues during gameplay. Gif Your Game uses a different approach: it's really recording the changes in game state, not the video itself, which means that there isn't a performance hit and also that the replay can be viewed from different angles. The product can be configured to automatically record specific in-game events, so someone playing a first-person shooter can know that there will be a video of every kill, or a sports gamer will know that they can review every goal.
This doesn’t just improve performance for computer hardware, but for the gamer, too; they want to be thinking about playing the game, not about whether they should be recording. It’s a tool for gamers to never lose their best moments.
This is especially interesting because anxiety about when to enjoy the moment and when to start recording is common in the real world, too; ironically, the digital world is coming up with solutions for living in the moment faster than the analog world can. While recording everything then going back for what you want is currently restricted to gaming, cheaper cameras, storage, and connectivity mean that it will spread to other parts of life, too.
Many online media sites put substantial effort into optimizing their sharing process. For example, when a TikTok video is being viewed in a browser, ⌘-L, the hotkey for selecting the URL, gets hijacked to show a sharing dialogue instead, with prompts to post the link to various social media sites. Sharing is especially important in gaming since so many games are multiplayer; sharing a gameplay GIF is practically inviting someone to buy the game and try it out themselves.
Many image- or GIF-creating sites add a watermark to raise brand awareness, but Gif Your Game does not. Instead, the service operates on the assumption that there's wide awareness of its brand in the gamer community, and that if anyone asks how the video was recorded, someone else will chime in and say it was through Gif Your Game. This is much more organic than merely including the watermark; it’s a peer endorsement, rather than an ad.
The Rise of Gaming Earbuds
Gaming earbuds represent the divergence of two separate trends: some people game to relax, and some people game to win.
Sites like Twitch have made it possible for gamers to earn a full-time living by playing video games and chatting with their audience. While some of these players are skilled, their role is not just to demonstrate elite gameplay; it's also to keep the audience engaged and entertained, whether or not the game itself is interesting. For these players, an important part of their work is their physical appearance, and they often opt for gaming earbuds, as opposed to more bulky over-ear headphones, as a way to look better while staying engaged with the game.
This also affects more than just professional streamers, as gaming is increasingly used as a way to socialize and how you look when you socialize—even when gaming—is sometimes important to gamers. Consumers even say they favor earbuds to over-ear headphones when going on pandemic Zoom dates, as they report the over-ear variety can look bulky and distracting.
Earbuds are a category that has rapidly grown in popularity in the last few years, and as demand rises, there’s often pull from the market to offer niche-focused variants. In addition to gaming earbuds, there are earbuds designed for swimming, earbuds for sleep, even earbuds designed for pets. Since each of these products is optimized for one specific use case, it’s often suboptimal for others—a great set of noise-cancelling earbuds, for example, is dangerous while driving. Meanwhile, this same proliferation makes users more sensitive to price and features; no one wants to overpay for elements that don't benefit them, and gamers in particular are sensitive to the "gamer tax"—the fact that some high-performance products have a higher price point when targeting gamers.
