Digital entertainment can take many forms. There are passive options like video streaming and music streaming, as well as active digital entertainment pastimes like photography and video gaming. And then there’s social media, which has passive elements like scrolling through fees and watching reels, as well as active elements including messaging, responding, and reacting to the social media posts of others.
Video Gaming
The video gaming industry is huge – now worth more than the movie and TV industries combined. Games can be placed on PC or consoles, including handheld and hybrid devices, and games range from casual titles to intense campaign-style games that keep players busy for hours a day. Such is its popularity that eSports has also arisen: professional tournaments that pay real cash prizes.
Mobile Gaming
Mobile gaming is a form of video gaming, but it has its own category due to its popularity. There are estimated to be more than 2 billion active mobile gamers in the world. When taken as a whole, including both mobile and video gaming, the industry is worth nearly $200 billion a year. Mobile gaming includes the use of apps, with recent titles like Wordle, which was bought by The New York Times, proving a massive hit.
iGaming
Online gambling is not regulated in California which means there are no sports betting or casino sites specifically licensed in the site. However, players can access offshore sites and those that accept cryptocurrency as a means of payment. According to sports betting and casino writer Jonathan Askew the top gambling sites in California offer access to all well-known casino games, including poker, slots, and roulette. Players can also find sports betting opportunities on these popular apps.
Video Streaming
Gaming might be the biggest entertainment industry in the world, but movies and TV still remain extremely popular in most homes, especially in California. These industries have changed somewhat in recent years, with video on demand and streaming services, as well as greater access to content from around the world, changing the type of content we consume as well as the ways we consume it. Most major movie and TV production companies now have their own streaming and on-demand services.
Music Streaming
Streaming has also taken over the music industry and forever changed the way we purchase and consume media. Platforms like Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Music, and YouTube Music have grown massively in recent years, along with consumers’ demand for streaming services. The industry is worth more than $30 billion a year, globally, and the US accounts for around $12 billion of this total. Modern homes have multiple devices that music can be streamed to.
Social Media
It’s difficult to pinpoint the exact start of social media. Six Degrees, launched in 1997 had a million users but it didn’t last long as it was held back by the slow Internet connections of the time. MySpace might be considered the first of the modern era of social media platforms and was located in California. Today, the state is home to Meta, Twitch, Twitter, Snapchat, Reddit, and a host of other social media websites, most of which are found in Silicon Valley and social media usage is as high in California as anywhere else in the world.
eBooks
There is a lot to be said about the feel and smell of physical paper, as well as other benefits of reading paper books, but there’s no denying the greater practicality and affordability of ebooks. An overflowing digital bookshelf won’t encroach on your home, for a start. Modern cell phones, laptops, and tablets can all act as highly efficient ebook readers, while the books themselves can be bought from sites like Amazon and Smashwords. Many of these services also offer subscription services, which are ideal for bibliophiles.
Digital Photography
Digital cameras became popular in the late 1990s and the Samsung SCH-V200 and SCH-X590 paved the way for modern digital camera phones. Today, smartphones have highly advanced phones that enable high-quality photography and videography. From the natural beauty of Yosemite to the potential for some star-studded selfies in Hollywood, California is the ideal location for budding amateur photographers, too. Recent advances in hardware mean users can record video and even capture 3D footage, with the right device.
VR And AR
Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality are relative newcomers to the digital entertainment stage. And, as yet, they haven’t quite achieved the level of uptake and development that many early adopters were expecting. However, it is advancing, thanks to more VR headsets like the Quest, Sony PlayStation VR2, and the Apple Vision Pro. Augmented Reality enjoyed a strong start thanks to Pokemon GO. These new immersive technologies are picking up steam: a trend that is likely to continue in the coming years.
