The past year has seen a surge in new users across all facets of online entertainment from video-on-demand, to livestreaming, to the growing market of gaming. As 2021 looks to be off to a similar start as 2020 and uncertainty around just how long many lockdown methods could remain in place for, many will look to continue growing. But what are the biggest online platforms for entertainment, and how will they be shaping up moving forward?
Video-on-demand & streaming – One of the big movers has certainly been within the big VOD services like Netflix – with the announcement that a new movie would be released each week throughout the year for a total of 71 new titles, the platform certainly looks to be making bigger moves than others in the space. Similarly, the recent announcement that Warner Bros would be partnering with HBO Max to release the years big titles directly to streaming platforms alongside cinema could spell huge change for the movie industry in the coming years – success here could lead other studios to follow, launch video on demand and streaming to be the biggest media consumption medium, as it is looking like it already is.
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Online gaming – Another of the big successes has been seen within online gaming as attitudes toward gaming as a whole have brought a new audience into the market. Changes to some platforms have been occurring throughout the past year as adjustments in regulation such as Gamstop have impacted the likes of online casinos and betting, but as more unique services such as no-account casinos start to become available, it does help to bridge the gap. Similarly, the rise of esports has also allowed other more dedicated online games to see record growth too, with some of the biggest platforms in the world announcing huge numbers of concurrent users, with the biggest reaching over 23 million concurrent users in December.
Livestreaming – Alongside the growth of online gaming comes the growth of livestreaming too as the two move hand in hand – whilst livestreaming has been steadily growing over the past decade through popular platforms such as Twitch, 2020 in particular saw record numbers of both viewers and new account registrations, likely in part due to the lockdowns. With 2021 looking to follow a similar pattern, and even suggestions that major sporting could find its way to livestreaming platforms, it presents a whole new set of opportunities for growth, and the possibility to capture a newer and growing audience.
Our day to day is moving increasingly online and as such it’s no surprise most popular forms of entertainment and looking to continue doing the same, and as future changes could bring options that remained typically offline to our handheld devices too the growth won’t look to stop – although much of the change is still tentative and reliant on certain successes, it seems these changes being the future are inevitable.