Global Gaming Markets Look to Virtual Reality as Key Component of Projected $172 Billion Expansion by 2025

Posted on: September 10, 2018, 12:46h. 

Last updated on: September 10, 2018, 12:46h.

Cort Smith Read More
Expertise: Sports Betting, Sports.

Virtual reality (VR) is becoming a serious reality for the global gaming market, as a recent study points to the worldwide gaming industry expanding to $171.96 billion by 2025, with VR playing a major role in that explosive growth.

VR casinos global gaming markets
(Image: new-yorks.com)

The study — released earlier this year by Fortune 500 research firm Grand View Research — suggests that gaming is now just behind the music and film industries in terms of size and has “emerged as one of the most lucrative industries in the entertainment sector.”

US-based Grand View provides syndicated research to companies across a range of industries, including healthcare and technology, and it’s the latter in particular that the study sees as the factor which will fuel the huge growth to come.

There’s a digital revolution underway in the gaming industry, and the study predicts it’s going to change how people gamble in the future.

Rise of the Machines

The study indicates that the evolution of virtual reality (VR) headsets has already “significantly impacted” the gaming market.

The immersive, engaging experience offered by VR — especially to millennials who are gluttonous when it comes to visuals — offers something different from the typical screen swipe or button push currently found in casinos, and will open up more avenues for gaming revenue as that sector continues to grow.

And grow it will: according to one study, the global VR software and hardware market is forecast to explode from a value of $1.8 billion in 2016 to $19 billion by 2021.

Casino suits are starting to see what VR can bring to their bottom line. Earlier this year, gaming software company IGT partnered with a VR developer to bring a “virtual reality competition” to The Orleans casino in Las Vegas.

Another study suggests that VR gambling is set to grow by 800 percent over the next few years and will account for 40 percent of the entire sector by 2021. 

Japan to Accelerate Growth

That’s not to suggest that the entire casino industry will go virtual. There are plenty of other factors which will fuel the global growth to come, including new casinos and entire new markets.

The credit ratings agency Fitch concurs that the gaming market is poised for solid growth, pointing in particular new casinos popping up all over the northeastern US, with the still-burgeoning Pennsylvania casino market and new venues in Massachusetts fueling that especially.

Meanwhile, one of the last great Asian gambling frontiers is about to open up after years of talk, now that the Japanese government finally gave the go-ahead for commercialized gambling in April.

Las Vegas Sands, MGM, and Wynn Resorts are all now jockeying for position to win one of the three licenses to build a multibillion dollar casino complex in the most coveted market since Macau opened up to foreign operators in 2001.