Video games have replaced music as the most important aspect of youth culture | Sean Monahan

The global video gaming industry took in an estimated $180bn in 2020 - more than sports and movies worldwide

It would be incorrect to say video games went mainstream in 2020. They've been mainstream for decades. But their place in pop culture feels far more central - to gamers and non-gamers alike - than ever before. In part, this is due to desperate marketers hunting for eyeballs in a Covid landscape of cancelled events. Coachella wasn't happening, but Animal Crossing was open was for business. Politicians eager to Rock the Vote" looked to video games to reach young voters. (See: Joe and Kamala's virtual HQ and AOC streaming herself playing Among Us.) The time-honored tradition of older politicians trying to seem young and hip at a music venue has been replaced by older politicians trying to seem young and hip playing a video game. Yes, quarantine was part of this. But, like so many trends during the pandemic, Covid didn't spark this particular trajectory so much as intensify it. Long before the lockdowns, video games had triumphed as the most popular form of entertainment among young people.

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