Editing 2010s (section)

==== Online and multiplayer games ====
{{Unreferenced section|date=April 2024}}
By the early 2010s, [[Online game|online gaming]] had become a mainstay of console platforms such as Xbox and PlayStation. During the 2010s, as the number of Internet users increased, two new video game genres rapidly gained worldwide popularity – [[Battle royale game|battle royales]] and [[multiplayer online battle arena]]s (MOBA) – both designed exclusively for multiplayer gameplay over the Internet. [[First-person shooter]]s were also a popular genre before and during the decade. These genres are commonly played in esports.

Professional gaming, also known as [[esports]], although well known in the 2000s, became tremendously big incurring a large increase in both viewership and prize money. By the late 2010s, it was estimated that the total audience of esports would grow to 454 million viewers, with revenue increasing to more than US$1 billion, with China accounting for 35% of the global esports revenue in 2020. The increasing availability of online [[streaming media]] platforms, particularly YouTube and [[Twitch (service)|Twitch]], have become central to the growth and promotion of esports competitions.

Since the 2010s, a common trend among online games has been operating them as [[games as a service]], using [[monetization]] schemes such as [[loot box]]es and [[battle pass]]es as purchasable items atop [[Free-to-play|freely-offered]] games. Unlike purchased retail games, online games have the problem of not being permanently playable, as they require special [[Game server|servers]] in order to function.