Gaming

Gaming is playing an electronic video game, which is often done on a dedicated gaming console, PC, or smartphone. People who often play video games are called gamers.

Gaming is an extremely popular activity worldwide. The number of people who play games is estimated to be over 3 billion. Some estimates put the worldwide gaming market value between $180 billion and $220 billion in 2022. This is about double the market for the global film industry. The majority of the gaming market is people playing games on their smartphones.

Gamers are often ordered into several groups, depending on how often and how involved they are with gaming.

 A casual gamer is someone who irregularly plays games or who only plays a single low-intensity game. An example casual gamer would be someone who plays word or puzzle games on their smartphone while on public transportation or at home while watching TV. Casual gaming is the largest portion of the gaming market due to its wide appeal and ease of access provided by smartphones. A casual gamer would often not self-identify as a gamer.

 A hardcore gamer is someone who regularly plays video games. They usually own dedicated video game devices like consoles or gaming PCs. Hardcore gamer often plays many games but focuses on one game or type of game they particularly enjoy. A hardcore gamer usually self-identifies as a gamer.

 A professional gamer is someone who makes money or supports themselves by playing games. Some are e-sports athletes who play video games at a professional level in tournaments. They may be part of a team, or clan, and play in broadcasted events. They may make money from tournament prize pools and corporate sponsorships. They usually focus on only a single game. Another type of professional gamer is a streamer. Streamer makes money by posting a video of them playing games. These videos are often done live and put on Twitch or YouTube. They make money from viewer donations, sponsorships, and ad revenue.

 While these are the traditionally accepted categories of gamers, there is no definitive way to classify all gamers, and these categories are skewed toward traditional gaming culture. For example, a retired woman who plays a farming or Sudoku game on her iPad for many hours a day would be considered by many people a casual gamer, although she probably plays video games for more hours a month than a traditional hardcore gamer.

Cloud gaming is where the gaming software is not run on a player-owned device. Instead, the game application is run on a cloud server. The player input is sent to the server, and the game video is streamed back to the user. Cloud gaming is becoming popular because, as games become more realistic, they require more powerful and expensive hardware to run. With cloud gaming, the user doesn't need to buy and upgrade the equipment, but instead, they just need a relatively low-power device to run the stream.

Virtual reality (VR) games are where the player puts on a headset to see a stereoscopic, three-dimensional (3D) game. These are fully immersive, enabling the player to feel like they inhabit the virtual world. Currently, high-quality VR headsets are expensive and require powerful hardware to run. Additionally, some players feel motion sickness during sessions of VR gaming. The lack of wide user adoption prevents most developers from creating games for VR.

 Concepts of a fully realized metaverse would combine VR gaming and MMOs with digital property and collaborative work.

 Augmented reality (AR) is where game elements are projected over the real world. This can be done in a stereoscopic headset or on a smartphone camera feed. AR gaming in a headset is still in its infancy with equipment to support it, such as Microsoft's HoloLens, being rare. AR mobile games have reached some level of popularity due to their ease of access and the novelty of combining the real world with game elements.

 Gamification is adding game elements to other types of activities. This can add user levels and progress markers to encourage users to continue using an application. Adding game elements has been shown to improve user attentiveness and engagement.

F2P games do not charge any money from the player. These games can have large install bases and especially attract children as they don't require money upfront. These games often make money by charging for cosmetic items or by artificially limiting play time and charging for premium content. The game publisher often does not make any money from the vast majority of the players. A few players, however, pay large sums of money -- sometimes, hundreds of dollars -- to get the premium content; these players are called whales in the industry.