Gaming: Videogames Are 'losing In The War For Attention': Analyst Says Many...

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Increasingly, our digital economies are defined by a contest to capture our attention. A product, service, or platform can get us to keep it on-screen, that's a gateway to lucrative advertising revenue and monetization opportunities. We're paying with our attention as much as our money—and according to games industry analyst Matthew Ball, we're giving less of both to videogames.

According to an early access release of Ball's report on games industry trends in 2025, eight countries—the US, Japan, South Korea, the UK, Germany, France, Canada, and Italy—accounted for over 60% of consumer spending prior to the COVID pandemic. But in the years since, Ball says "the 'Mature Market 8' have encountered a severe, persistent, and surprising reality: They are losing in the War for Attention."

In half of those countries, surveys show that the number of people who describe themselves as regularly playing videogames is lower today than it was before the height of COVID lockdowns. In the US, data from Circana, the ESA, Ampere, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that "the share of the population that plays games has fallen by 2.5-4 points since before the pandemic," Ball says.

Source: PC Gamer