Binge-viewing Gamers Competition Spikes As Peak Attention Nears
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The 20,000 Foot View: Binge watching is mainstream among console owners. It increased slightly during 2017 among SVOD subscribers, while the consumer average remained unchanged. As the attention economy peaks, with consumers having no additional digital time to allocate, the competition for time between the worlds of on-demand video and gaming will intensify. The effect will be twofold: increased binge watching threatens games publishers whose revenues are becoming increasingly engagement-dependent; at the same time, gaming time demands among binge watchers will threaten video services. In order to mitigate these risks, prevent unnecessary losses and find ways to make these dynamics work to their respective advantages, both industries will have to start paying far more attention to one another.
Key Findings
- In the attention economy, games and subscription video on demand (SVOD) services are becoming fiercer competitors
- At console owners binge watch nearly as much as video subscribers do and far more than overall consumers
- Between and 2017, binge watching increased by among console owners, compared to among video subscribers and 0% consumer average
- Increasing binge watching penetration is a threat to engagement-dependent games publishers, but also to SVOD services
- Major SVOD services could provide games (or gamified experiences) alongside shows in order to reduce savvy switching among gamers
- Many of SVOD’s most engaged users are console owners
- Console owners are often more likely to subscribe to and cancel SVOD services than video subscribers
Companies and brands mentioned in this report: Activision, EA, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Xbox Game Pass