Blockchain and NFTs are turning gamers into Investors
The video game industry is enjoying massive growth, valued at over $162 billion today and expected to surge to $295 billion worldwide over the next five years. Mobile gaming, once dismissed by the hardcore gaming crowd as a passing fad, has been a significant driver of the industry’s growth in recent years, with more than 2.5 billion mobile players globally in 2020. The total number of mobile gamers has even eclipsed more traditional venues like console gaming (800 million players in 2020) and PC gaming (1.3 billion players in 2020).
Bitcoin has been on a wild ride this year. At the start of 2021, the price was around $29,000, which skyrocketed to all-time highs over $63,000 in mid-April. Then, high-profile comments by Elon Musk kicked off a crash that has since seen the price drop down to around $43,000. Despite the recent drop, Bitcoin is still trading nearly 150% above its January 2021 levels, and investments in blockchain are increasing exponentially year-over-year. This has inevitably given way to a renewed interest in blockchain, the distributed ledger technology underpinning cryptocurrency, and some game developers looking to incorporate the technology into their offerings.
