Video games have undergone a huge transformation over the last decade or so. They have gone from being a niche hobby to one of the most mainstream pastimes in the world. A lot of this is due to how the games have been marketed, as well as the platforms that they are available on. Moving from being just a bedroom hobby to being available on basically every possible platform has made video games accessible to almost everyone. However, there are more factors that have pushed video games to the top of the mountain, it’s quite a complex level of growth. With online casino games becoming more popular over time, it’s worth asking if they can make a similar move and become mainstream.

What boosted video games?

 Video games have been becoming more popular since the late 90s and early 2000s. However, it was the introduction of mobile gaming that really supercharged the popularity of video games. When video games started to be played on mobile, it meant that anyone could play a video game at any time. It changed from a hobby that was just played by gamers to essentially everyone being a gamer. With the rise of online casinos over the last decade and with the new US new policy on online casinos,  it’s not an outlandish suggestion to believe that they too can make a similar rise.

Are there similarities?

Video games are able to draw in players due to how much fun they are to play. Online casino games also have a similar offering. They are a lot of fun and while they don’t offer quite the same level of playability as standard video games, there’s still lots of fun to be found in online casino games.

The biggest similarity is how mobile gaming has helped to increase gaming among players. Many more players have access to online casinos on their mobile devices either through browser games or through a mobile app. This has made online casinos a lot more popular in the mainstream in a similar manner to video games.

However, despite these similarities, there are some barriers out there that stop online casino games from being able to rise to the same level as the PS5 and Xbox.

What barriers are there?

One of the biggest barriers is that online casino games don’t have the same level of financial backing as standard video games. While online casino games have certainly looked a lot better over the years, they haven’t hit the heights that Triple A titles have. This means that they might not be able to resonate with people in the same manner that video games do. It’s not just in terms of graphics and development teams either. Video games often offer stories to players. These stories make the games much more engaging and immersive for players. It really helps with making titles more mainstream.

However, despite that being a big barrier, it’s still not the biggest barrier to casino games becoming a mainstream property. The biggest barrier is that casino games require players to be of legal age in order to play them. While adults are undoubtedly the biggest consumers of video games, children are still big drivers of them. Children will never be able to play casino games, so it’s a market that will never be available. This is a significant barrier to casino games becoming as mainstream as video games.

Of course, there is the additional issue that casino games are regulated much more strictly than video games. This creates other problems when it comes to advertising the games and promoting them to players.

Can it happen?

To put it simply, it’s very unlikely. The barriers that are in place for casino games make it very difficult to make the same jump in popularity that video games have enjoyed. However, this isn’t necessarily a large problem.

The main reason this isn’t too much of a problem is because casino games still have a lot of growth to move into. They can still grow further in the future and as such can become more popular. They’ll likely never reach the same heights that video games have reached, but they can still become much more popular than they currently are.

There are likely to be more innovations taking place in the casino gaming world, which will help the games to keep growing. This will help ensure that the market is able to continue growing and become more popular with new players.