As the Millennial generation mature and become some of the world’s highest spending consumers, their interest and that of Generation Z in gaming and their patronage of the sector looks set to drive the industry to new heights.
In fact, digital gaming is estimated to achieve a value of over $94 billion by 2024. And, as per a Fullscreen survey gaming is the favourite at-home entertainment of Millennial parents who also let their children play video games. Fullscreen found these parents themselves spend around 8.5 hours a week gaming, on average.
© AFP Photo | Ted Aljibe
Not only are Millennials and Generation Z fuelling gaming industry growth by playing and watching video games and esports but they are also gambling on gaming and esports and investing directly in the sector by buying stocks and esports ETFs. Esports stocks are not only of interest to younger investors, other generations are seeing the opportunity of esports as an investment as esports revenue rockets, audience figures boom, and bigger and bigger sponsorship deals emerge.
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In a now maturing esports industry more gaming companies and even esports teams are launching IPOs and listing their shares on the stock markets, opening up more new investment opportunities. Let’s take a look at a few gaming and esports stocks to watch:
EA has launched such titles as The Sims, Apex Legends, FIFA, Madden NFL and Star Wars. Industry analysts Zacks as February 27, expect EA to see a shares earnings growth rate of 0.9% amidst a stock market sector of toys and hobbies, likely to decline by 5.1%.
Not only is Nintendo responsible for hugely successful game titles such as Super Smash Bros and Pokemon but its latest console, the Nintendo Switch is another notable achievement for the long-established gaming brand. Zacks believe Nintendo could deliver an earnings growth rate for shareholders of 5.9%.
Chipmaker and graphics card legend Nvidia is still quietly powering many gaming PCs. Its stock is on a 52-week high, up 13% in February again outperforming a more widely classified industry’s growth at nearly 6%. Oppenheimer, Deutsche Bank and RBC analysts are all bullish on Nvidia’s stock prices.
Call of Duty and World of Warcraft publishers Activision Blizzard now boasts epic investor George Soros as a shareholder, leading TipRanks to give Activision Blizzard a “strong buy,” rating. Soros invested $45 million in the company in late 2019 and some analysts believe the stock could see upwards of 20% growth.
Still holding on as one of the big technology stocks to invest in, Microsoft is also one of the primary names in the esports and gaming sector. The Xbox is still incredibly popular and Microsoft is another company investigating the potential of blockchain for gaming, illustrated by its recent partnership with Enjin. Classified within software stocks, Microsoft is expected to see share earnings growth above 18% compared with an industry projected growth figure of 6%.
Danish esports company and team Astralis become the first esports team to conduct an IPO and go public, shares went on sale in December and it’s early days for the company’s stocks. Astralis Group shares went on sale for the equivalent of $1.33 per share. The Astralis team is currently world number one for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO).
It’s not just esports stock market investing that is creating a side-hustle opportunity for Millennials and Generation Z. The blockchain tokenization of game assets, like Nifties, means that in the future game collectibles could have significant real-world value. And, for those who are not risk-averse esports betting is another opportunity to possibly turn a few dollars. CryptoFights, for example, is just one platform in development which enables both gaming and gambling.
Read also: Esports Betting with Bitcoin
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