Each new year has the chance to bring about brand new gaming trends across its many platforms. In 2018, the emergence of the battle royale gaming genre across all platforms encapsulated headlines with its reported revenues and massive player base.
This year sees battle royale games still going strong, with Fortnite still on top, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds proving to be very popular among Steam users, and the brand new Apex Legends looking to get in on the action.
Outside of battle royale, there are many exciting storylines to see unravel across the three primary gaming platforms.
Mobile: New popular sub-categories will emerge
Last year saw the puzzle and simulation game genre of mobile games stand as the only category which increased in revenue year-on-year. But looking into mobile gaming predictions for 2019, genres are set to consolidate and crossover while new sub-categories emerge as revenue continues to grow.
As of the middle of February, the virtual-money slot Coin Master and the puzzler Matchington Mansion ruled the mobile gaming charts in the UK, but simulation game BitLife – Life Simulator and the football mini-game Head Ball 2 were sharply on the rise.
With such a huge range of new games coming to the app stores every week, any game could quickly emerge as the nation’s favourite to start a new trend.
Computer: Bingo continues to soar
One of the UK’s most popular pastimes, bingo, looked to be dying a death earlier this decade but it suddenly started to become much more popular among the crucial younger demographic. It was found that bingo had become a popular topic across social media, leading to its resurgence.
This led to many big-name companies buying and revamping brick-and-mortar bingo halls, per The Guardian, as well as a huge range of websites going live dedicated to offering a convenient and social way to play the game online.
Now, the best bingo sites experience waves of new players looking to enjoy the thrills of the game. Given the amount that has been invested in bingo halls, the attendance at the halls, and the popularity of online play, bingo is set to be a strong gaming trend in 2019 as well.
Consoles: Switch and PlayStation to blaze past Xbox again
When it comes to the console wars, even though hardcore gamers rave about the technical qualities of each console, for most people, it all boils down to the games available, with the dividing lines being the console exclusives.
Thanks to their exclusive games, the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 blazed past the Xbox One in sales in 2018, and are expected to do so again in 2019. Market research sees the best gaming consoles, the Switch and PS, selling 17.3 million and 17.1 million consoles worldwide this year, respectively, while the Xbox One trails significantly with 10 million units sold.
This trend will be fuelled by the impressive line of console exclusives from the dominant devices. The Switch has Yoshi’s Crafted World, Animal Crossing, a core Pokemon game, and Luigi’s Mansion 3 among others. The PS4 will release Days Gone, Ghost of Tsushima, the Final Fantasy VII remake, and likely Death Stranding. On the Xbox, however, Gears 5 and Crackdown 3 look to be the only major exclusives coming in 2019, but Battletoads will also create a bit of buzz.
In 2019, expect the mobile gaming scene to be as colourful as ever, bingo to continue to soar in popularity online, and the Switch and PS4 to release many top-class new games to increase the gap on the Xbox One.
