And by 2024, ABI Research anticipates that 5G and other new services will drive total cloud gaming market revenues to $4.5 billion and the number of active cloud gaming users to 42 million.

On the consumer side, for example, Flurry Analytics reported increased numbers of users and sessions in gaming apps on its mobile app analytics platform in March and Q2. These trends led us to revise our mobile phone gamer estimate upward for 2020. Pre-pandemic, we had expected 2.6% growth in the number of people playing games via mobile at least monthly in 2020.

Xiaomi, known for its internet of things (IoT) devices, has been developing its ecosystem, including augment and virtual reality and cloud gaming. Tencent and Roblox have teamed up to develop a next generation of content creators and programmers in the “gaming and education” genre. Soul, a social media platform, has plans to create a metaverse for young people.

eMarketer junior forecasting analyst Nazmul Islam and principal analyst Victoria Petrock discuss how Americans are using smart speakers today and how that will morph into ambient computing in the future. They also talk about the rise of spam calls, how Americans travel for the holidays and the cloud gaming wars.

eMarketer sales executive Michael Bruckenthal, midmarket account manager Brandon Galindo and principal analyst Nicole Perrin discuss initial reactions to Google's new cloud-based gaming service Stadia. Then vice president of content studio Paul Verna talks about the effects of Hulu's price hike, why Spotify is recommending podcasts and Amazon's agenda for its new free music streaming service.

Digital gaming and viewership of gaming video content (GVC) has become more popular amid the pandemic. In 2021, some of this activity will see modest growth, while interest in other forms of gaming will taper off.

Similarly, the trend toward cloud gaming, where two users play each other at a distance and with very little latency, could accelerate. According to a January 2020 survey by Nokia, half of adults in South Korea, the UK, and the US found the idea of cloud gaming subscriptions very appealing. AR and VR subscription models were also appealing to nearly three-quarters of respondents.

Amazon Games has instead focused on cloud-based gaming, which could be a good fit given the parent company’s leadership in cloud computing through its AWS unit. Twitch was founded in 2011 as a spinoff of the Justin.tv livestreaming service. From its inception, Twitch focused on gaming streams and esports, which had been especially popular on Justin.tv.

For example, Snapchat’s Snap Camera enables users to use Snapchat Lenses on their computer while streaming video and during Zoom or Google Hangouts video calls, and it may soon be possible to use Google Lens visual search functionality within YouTube or cloud gaming service Google Stadia.

The problem: We’re starting to see cracks in cloud infrastructure providers' ability to keep a growing list of internet services and apps online. AWS’ recent outage exposes the fragility of busy data center regions.

Live streaming is set for a comeback, and it won’t be just for gamers and esports viewers anymore. Almost every major social media platform, including Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, has now integrated live streaming into their services. And as video game live streaming platforms expand beyond gaming, the once-niche activity is primed for the mainstream in 2020. Take Twitch, for example.

The news: Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud servers went down yesterday, causing massive outages to chunks of the internet, per Insider.