Over the last decade, the video game industry has experienced massive growth, and its profits are now rival those of television, movies, or music. This favorite pastime for many millennials came to life over two decades ago, but it was in the 2010s that it became more than just a sub-niche and firmly taking its place on the mainstream.
By the start of the decade, iPhone gaming was barely a year old, and smartphones were not powerful enough to support games like “Pokemon Go.” However, mobile gaming has continued growing over the years with the rise of online gaming. As such, gamers can enjoy more than us-online-casino games on their home gaming computers.
Here are the top five most impactful games that helped shape the gaming market over the last decade. They might not be the best, but they gave gamers some of their greatest moments on smartphones and gaming consoles.
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (2017)
With The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Nintendo showed it could make the latest open-world game. Besides, it proved it could create an open-world game that was fascinating that what the competition was doing. Untethered from linear development, players were free to tour Hyrule at their own pace and create their escapade.
- Grand Theft Auto V (2013)
At $6 billion in revenue and growing, Rockstar’s GTAV is the most financially successful amusement product of all time. The open-world crime simulator ranked in more money than the Star Wars and Gone With the Wind film franchise. The series reached its peak with the fifth installment, merging an aspiring story with open-world madness.
It’s hard to quantify the cultural influence of Grand Theft Auto. It’s been the subject of made-for-TV dramatizations, a center for various lawsuits, and a concern for parents agitated about violent video games.
- League of Legends (2009)
Developer Riot Games launched League of Legends at the end of 2009. However, it took a few more years for the game to define the multiplayer online battle arena game genre. Currently, it’s the gold standard for e-sports. League of Legends competition fill stadiums across the world and attracts more spectators than the Super Bowl.
- Fortnite (2017)
Fortnite began as a modular base building game. Developer Epic Games patched in the action royale multiplayer mode, after the success of PUBG, and gave it away for free, Players – mostly young – picked up the game by the millions. After making so much money so fast, Epic Games launched its distribution platform. The game has become so popular that parents are now concerned about the addictive nature of video games.
- Pokemon Go (2016)
For a few months after its launch, it felt like everyone was playing Niantic’s mobile augmented reality game, Pokemon Go. For those not playing it, then they knew it because every day brought a new stream of new stories about the joys and mishaps of those who walked around in real life, looking for virtual pocket mo