How online entertainment is taking over the industry
February 4, 2025
Online entertainment has become the norm. We do everything online, from working and paying bills to shopping, reading and learning. Why would entertainment be any different? Every aspect of the entertainment industry has shifted to the digital. We can still attend entertainment events in the real world, but increasingly, even live entertainment is offered online.
Whether or not this is a positive development is up for debate. The increase in accessibility is obviously a major positive feature. The potential negatives include the impact on the artists, the loss of community and changes in our expectations. This article will look at each major sector to see how online entertainment is taking over the industry.
Music streaming
It wasn’t that long ago that the music we listened to was all played on or downloaded from CDs. Even if you didn’t buy a physical copy of an album or a single, the main option for listening to music was to purchase a digital version of the album to download.
This is one of the most dramatic shifts in entertainment and how we consume media. We no longer own the music we listen to, or store it on personal hard drives or dedicated devices. Instead, we subscribe to music platforms where we can listen to the songs we want – with or without advertisements, depending on how much we’ve paid.
This has had a big impact on artists as well. Success can’t be measured by album sales any longer. Instead, streaming figures have to be counted. Since this doesn’t directly translate into revenue in the same way, artists have to reevaluate how to make money and be successful.
Online video games
Video games have jumped from a hobby for young men to being one for all ages and genders. As the scope of gaming has increased, the ways that people play them have changed as well. In previous decades, most video games were played on consoles or dedicated PC systems. Now, more people play games on their mobile devices than any other way.
The move to online entertainment has changed how we buy games as well as how we access them. Many games – especially online mobile games – are now free to play. Instead of buying a game, players are encouraged to make in-game purchases or to watch ads. These micro transactions have reshaped how we think about paying for video games.
Cloud gaming has become increasingly widespread and will likely be the main way that we access games in the future. Cloud gaming removes the need for a large hard drive. Instead, games are stored in the cloud. This gives players the ability to buy and store or subscribe to more games than ever before. It also makes it more likely that companies will release vintage games, since they don’t have to consider the expected retail sales.
Online casinos
A specific sector of the online gaming market that has seen immense growth recently is the online casino or iGaming sector. Online casinos aren’t a new phenomenon – they started in the 1990s with online poker rooms. Over the last few years, however, they’ve become so much more sophisticated and impressive.
Online casinos can now compete with traditional, land-based casinos in terms of variety, quality of games, bonuses and fairness. The list of leading casinos at CasinoTopsOnline gives some insight into what these sites offer.
Online slots are the most popular type of online casino game. There are thousands of options created by dozens of game developers, which means there is an impressive variety of games and there is a slot for every personal preference and style of play. Table games like poker, roulette and blackjack are also very popular. Live dealer games, which feature a real dealer, are where online casinos are showing the most innovation. These games have played a major role in making the digital casino competitive with the real thing.
Podcasts
At this point in time, podcasts have fully replaced radio as the top form of audio entertainment. Podcasts cover every topic imaginable and are hosted by everyone from the average person with an interest in a subject to celebrities and internationally recognised experts.
Even though there are so many podcasts available, they are an exciting part of the entertainment industry. There is always room for more podcast content, and audiences have shown how eager they are to consume this type of online entertainment.
Streaming television and movies
Streaming television shows and movies is quite possibly the biggest change in how we consume entertainment media, because it has added so much freedom. Instead of being bound by schedules and air times, we can now watch whatever we want, whenever we want. This has created the ability to binge watch shows (without having to buy the DVD box set of the series) and has shifted how movies are released.
The other big impact that streaming entertainment has had is that it is normal to have multiple subscription services for movies and television shows. There has been some backlash about how many subscriptions it feels necessary to have. In general, though, people are happy to subscribe to multiple services in order to have access to all of their preferred content.
Reading
Whether or not to consider reading entertainment is a personal choice. For many people, reading is their preferred way to relax and unwind after a long day at work, or to take their mind off an annoying commute on public transportation. Reading together is also a way for parents and children to bond.
When e-readers were first introduced, there was a lot of pushback against them because many readers love the tactile experience of holding a book and turning the pages. The move to digital has had less opposition, probably because of how accepted e-readers have become.
Reading is now often done online, through subscriptions to e-books on library platforms like Libby or by listening to audiobooks. Audiobook apps and subscription services like Audible have had a huge impact on shifting how much of our reading is done online.