20 Years in Gaming – 5 Breakout Trends

The last 20 years of gaming have undoubtedly stood as the most extensive yet experienced. With leaps in technology, this world has opened up possibilities like never before, possibilities which continue to expand with each new console and piece of gaming tech. Taking five key examples from the past 20 years, we want to look at where these originated, what made them special, and what influence they hold to this day.

PUBG: Battle Royale Genre – 2017

In the first few days of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, when it remained a mod for ARMA 3, the game was much-celebrated, but rarely embraced by the masses. Once it found its official release as a standalone product in 2017, however, the game quickly found international fame.

At its all-time peak, PUBG had over 3.2 million concurrent players, according to the official Steam Charts. It might have eventually lost the battleground popularity contest to Fortnite, but there is no doubt the genre started with PUBG.

DOTA: MOBA Games – 2004

Another game which started as a mod, Defence of the Ancients was originally a fan-made addition to Warcraft 3. Eventually proving more popular than the base game, the rights would eventually be bought by Valve, who went on to create the sequel.

Modern DOTA 2 currently stands as the most popular competitive eSports game off all time, as illustrated by the yearly tournament The International. According to the DOTA 2 Prize Pool Tracker, 2019 had over $32 million of prizes on the line, a number that since 2014, has only been growing.

Casino Gaming: Digital Betting – 2008

Despite having their start in 1996, it took over a decade for online casino games to really find their feet. Now worth close $60 billion in 2020, the expansion of this market has been near-unprecedented while showing no signs of slowing down.

Online betting games, while always popular on PC, saw significant success when translated to mobile devices. Now games like bingo are accessible to anyone and everyone, with services that focus on omni-channel solutions which have offered the most in pushing the envelope and customer-friendly engagement across multiple platforms.

World of Warcraft: MMORPGs – 2004

World of Warcraft (WoW) was hardly the first massively multiplayer online role-playing game, but it was the one which raised the public visibility of MMORPGs into the public eye. At its peak in 2012, WoW boasted a massive 12 million subscribers, bringing developers Blizzard around $180 million a month in subscription fees alone.

Even today, WoW remains popular, with many other MMOs borrowing from the patterns which it established so long ago. It might not hold the prestige it once did, but there is little doubt that Warcraft is the most influential MMO in gaming history.

Minecraft: Creative Gaming – 2009

When it comes to creative gaming, none have matched the force that Minecraft has. Originally borrowing the idea from a game called Infiniminer, Minecraft would bring people of all ages together in the pursuit to tame and then dominate their creative worlds. Both as a vanilla package and as one supported by the modding community, Minecraft offers near-endless opportunities. In fact, according to some basic math, the total hypothetical area of a Minecraft world is equal to about 8 times the surface of the earth.

Of course, given the size of modern gaming, these 5 examples only scratch the surface of what is out there. Make no mistake though, if you’ve played any digital games within the last 20 years, chances are you’ve felt the influence of this list in some way or another, and this influence is only going to grow more pronounced.