Advanced Television

Survey: Streaming to be major video game driver

October 7, 2021

A survey of global consumers on their expectations and preferences around interacting with streaming video content from video games and interactive entertainment strategic research firm DFC finds that nearly all (96 per cent) consumers watch streaming video content monthly and an overwhelming majority (85.4 per cent) would interact with streamed content if they could.

“We have been closely watching interactive experiments like Netflix’s Black Mirror: Bandersnatch and Facebook’s Rival Peak, advises David Cole, owner and principal analyst at DFC Intelligence. “This data highlights some of the key reasons Netflix recently committed to developing games with partners like the WWE, and Facebook just announced it will become a ‘metaverse company’. The ability to directly interact with content should bring a larger, more engaged audience into streaming, cloud gaming, and the metaverse – and this is attractive to large platforms and content providers.”

Furthermore, over half of respondents to the survey of nearly 5,000 people aged 13 and older, commissioned by Genvid Technologies and conducted over the summer of 2021, indicated a willingness to pay for the ability to interact with streamed content, either by subscription (51 per cent), microtransactions (52 per cent), or other methods.

“We have been looking at business model opportunities for concepts like cloud gaming, the metaverse and Massive Interactive Live Events (MILEs) for many years,” adds Cole.  “The technology is finally getting to the point where new categories are becoming mainstream.  Furthermore, it appears consumers are now eager to not only try, but actually pay for, new content delivery forms.”

Among younger consumers, the desire to interact with livestream video content, and the inclination to pay for that ability, was even higher: about 87 per cent of those under age 35 want to interact with what they’re watching, and 60 per cent of consumers in that age group expressed a likelihood of paying via microtransactions for the privilege.

Other key data points from the survey included:

  • Female respondents across all age groups were even more interested in interacting with livestreamed content and even more inclined to pay for it via microtransactions: 88.8 per cent and 56.7 per cent respectively.
  • Across geographic regions, the survey found significant differences in consumers’ willingness to pay (via subscription) to interact with video content: US (55 per cent), Japanese (64 per cent) and some Latin American (Mexico 72 per cent; Colombia 70 per cent) consumers were most inclined, while Belgian (38 per cent) and French (39 per cent) consumers were the least likely (and the only countries under 50 per cent).
  • 62 per cent of all respondents cited socializing and interacting as a key reason to watch livestreams of other people playing video games (66 per cent of females, 59 per cent of males)

 

Categories: Articles, Consumer Behaviour, Content, Games, Markets, Research

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