A bad economy and job cuts compelled people to cut down spending on everything. People cut down their spending on luxuries first. The online gaming sector witnessed a little growth in the year 2009 due to the economic slowdown.
In the current year 2010, the latest statistics that have been put forward for January, have shown that the online gaming sector has witnessed a huge comeback compared to the same month last year. As compared to a growth of just 3% in the last year, it has seen a growth of 14.5% in the month of January.
Many other sectors like manufacturing and retail have not shown such an encouraging increase. The comeback of online gaming sector is being seen as a sign of improving economic scenario. There seems to be stabilization in terms of the unemployment rates and jobs that are being cut.
Various sectors within the online gaming sector have shown impressive growths. These include the multiplayer gaming segment, online blackjack, flash, kids games, contests and other micro segments.
The online segment has performed better than the console gaming that includes major players like Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft. The launch of new consoles has resulted in increased sales for them in recent months.
“We have seen a significant rise in the online gaming sector in the beginning of the year 2010. This can be seen as a sign of improving economy. Around 55% of the growth was from North American and Europe, while the remaining 45% was from rest of the world,” said Jack Wills, a leading analyst with a brokerage firm based in Santa Monica.
This is one segment that was the least affected by the dismal economic scenario. We should hope that the growth is sustained in the coming months too. According to leading analysts, other segments like travel and retail will show a net positive growth in the next quarter of the year 2010.