Online games are now arguably the number one category for gamers worldwide. Not only do online games make up a huge chunk of the gaming industry, but they also produce large revenues in esports tournaments and continue to make up the bulk of gaming tournaments worldwide. The number of gaming tournaments where you can play for cash prizes increases yearly, whether it’s Formula 1 games, soccer games such as FIFA or Pro Evolution Soccer or American sports such as NBA2K or NFL Madden.
As well as placing bets on esports NFL tournaments, you can also place bets on actual NFL markets. This includes games during a standard season and bets on the biggest games of them all, such as the Super Bowl. Super Bowl odds fluctuate as the season rumbles on, and the odds for the teams who will make the playoffs rise and fall based on their performance throughout the season.
The benefits of online gaming are vast, and previously, in the days of the old console gaming such as the original XBOX and PlayStation 1 and 2, you could not play against other people online. However, now the updated versions of these consoles are some of the most sophisticated gaming machines on the planet; there aren’t many things you can’t do on them. You can listen to music while playing and speak to your friends online as well as many other players in every corner of the globe.
One of the most important features of online gaming is that you can perform live updates. For example, the creators of games such as NFL Madden will release live updates when they find bugs in their games. Once they have identified and fixed the bugs, they will offer the updates as free downloads to improve the gaming experience.
This isn’t specific to NFL Madden, and almost all other games that are playable online now offer the same facility. It isn’t limited to sports games either, as all types of games try and identify bugs and fix them as quickly as possible.
FIFA 23 is the latest upcoming instalment of the incredibly successful soccer game. Despite the 2000s being a toe-to-toe battle for supremacy between FIFA and Pro Evolution Soccer. The introduction of Ultimate Team at the turn of the last decade ensured that the EA Sports game reigned supreme in the quest for market domination.
The interactive online feature has revolutionized sports games, as FIFA enthusiasts worldwide scramble to get their hands on weekly updates. Compiling a mix of the best players from today’s game and legends from the past highlighted an innovation that FIFA seemed to have been lacking in gameplay over the most recent years. Despite FIFA 21 and 22 being panned as essentially the same game, its online popularity has somewhat allowed them to take their foot off the gas.
The playability of the game and the number of users online don’t seem to have dwindled, and figures from 2019 showed that FIFA outsold Pro Evolution Soccer by a ratio of nearly 25 to 1. A staggering figure given how close the competition was just a little over a decade ago. The upcoming FIFA World Cup will host an esports version that will run alongside it. The winner will receive prize money of $1.2 million.
In addition to soccer, other sports games such as NBA, NFL and Tony Hawks Pro Skater also have huge online communities that get involved in esports tournaments. However, it isn’t just a market aimed at the top end of players who want to play these games online professionally. Millions of people enjoy playing online as a pastime, and that figure continues to grow as newer generations enter the online gaming world.
While other types of games enjoy a more sizeable market share than sports games, there are still millions of online sports game lovers that compete against each other every day. As we have already examined, this figure isn’t likely to drop anytime soon.
Despite the domination of well-established games that have been around for decades, there’s always room for new games to explode onto the scene and challenge the older and more established companies in the online sports gaming world. Whether this happens isn’t that much of an issue for sports game lovers who want to play the best online games. The challenge is for the developers. They need to listen to their players and rise to the challenge. This could reflect in future sales if they’re inspired to create memorable and engaging games.