The video game industry is in a golden era where new titles are constantly pushing the medium forward, resulting in an ever growing gaming landscape.

The video game industry is larger than the movie industry and music industry combined, according to an Oct. 31 2021 article by financial website Investopedia.

When comparing old generation titles to the newer generation, the difference in graphics, quality and scale makes it apparent just how much video games improve over a short period of time.

The bar is constantly getting raised and developers are consistently pushing past our standards as consumers.

Industry-defining video games such as Epic’s Fortnite, and  Activision Blizzard’s Call of Duty franchise set a high standard for the online shooter genre.

The two video games that made the most money in 2021 were Call of Duty: Vanguard and Call of Duty: Black Ops: Cold War. Two multiplayer titles from the same franchises ended up as the highest selling video games of 2021, according to a 2022 Statista study,  

Needless to say, online-multiplayer video games are extremely profitable.

As a result, the video game industry and the online-multiplayer space is becoming increasingly competitive. 

It’s easy to assume that due to the popularity of online-multiplayer titles, more video game developers would turn their attention away from linear, single-player experiences and move more towards online experiences. 

While there are certainly some developers who have shifted their focus to online-multiplayer video games, there is still a large market for single-player video games. 

During the last console generation, it’s fair to say that Sony, one of the largest video game publishers in the world, solidified itself as the best platform for single-player games. 

God of War, a 2018 video game, made a total of 500 million dollars in revenue, according to a 2020 PlayStation LifeStyle article. 

Compared to the largest multiplayer titles like Fortnite, God of War has made significantly less over its lifespan. However, numbers that high for a single-player game is still a huge accomplishment for Sony and the developers behind the game, Santa Monica Studios. 

Other successful PlayStation titles such as The Last of Us, Uncharted 4, Persona 5 and Horizon Zero Dawn are all single player experiences. 

The success that Sony has had with single-player exclusives proves that there is still a market and an interest for single-player games.

One of the biggest reasons that Sony found so much success through single-player games, is because they consistently pushed the industry forward with genre-defining titles.

God of War was easily one of the best story-driven games in the previous console generation and it showcased how far video games have come as a medium.

Other studios look at the success that Sony has had with their single-player games and realize that there is an audience for more linear experiences.

When developers constantly churn out online-multiplayer games in an attempt to be popular,  they can inadvertently destroy their chances of success. 

Anthem, released in 2019 by Electronic Arts (EA), is one example of developers over-hyping and over-promising before a game’s release, only for players to completely lose interest shortly after.

Battlefield 2042, another EA game released in 2021, was a classic case of a game-over scenario, as they made false promises and under-delivered.

Shortly after its release, players were fed up with the buggy state of the game that for the first time in the history of the franchise, there were more players on the previous Battlefield games.

I don’t think there will ever come a point where we will see online-multiplayer games not being the most successful in the industry. But there will always be a place in the video game industry for quality single-player experiences.