Dubai: Some play to pass the time. Some for fun. Others to earn glory. And still others to win real money.
Video games have been, and still are, a large part of many people’s lives.
For every adult who believes gaming is child’s play, there are dozens of others who play competitively and stand to win millions of dollars.
For instance, ‘The International’, which is an ongoing tournament in one of the popular PC games Defence of the Ancients 2 or DotA2, is an annual competition with a prize pool that is currently more than $17 million (Dh62.44 million).
Video games have become so popular over the decades that some have been made into high-grossing movies, such as Hitman, Doom, Resident Evil, Tom Raide, Tekken, and the latest in the works, Assassin’s Creed, scheduled for release at the end of 2016.
The 2014 annual report by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), a US association dedicated to serving the business and public affairs needs of companies that publish computer and video games, stated that 155 million Americans play video games.
The report had interesting data among which are these facts: 56 per cent of gamers are male while 44 per cent are female; 26 per cent of gamers are aged under 18, 30 per cent are between 18-35, 17 per cent are between 36-49 and 27 per cent are 50+.
Women aged 18 and above represent a significantly greater portion of the game-playing population (33 per cent) than boys aged 18 or younger (15 per cent).
Though these statistics are dominated by US data, they nevertheless provide a valuable insight into the world of gaming.
