Gaming entertainment,
the biggest medium.
How games became the largest form of entertainment, what they compete with, and why play won so much of our attention.
Play, the biggest
medium.
Games are no longer a side act in entertainment; they are the headline. Gaming entertainment is play as a medium, one that now earns more than film and recorded music combined and competes for the same hours people once gave to screens and stereos. It is interactive where other media are passive, which is part of why it took over. This section is about games as an entertainment form: how they won, what they are up against, and what makes play different.
Living inside the entertainment business was our world for two decades. The brand opened as a Fort Collins music store in 1999, part of an industry that competed for people's leisure and money. Gaming entertainment is that same fight for attention, now led by games rather than records. We knew how an entertainment medium lives and competes, which is the lens we bring to gaming's rise.
"Entertainment is a contest for people’s hours, and games are winning it. We competed in that business for twenty years, which is why gaming’s takeover reads clearly to us."
— The SpotlightMusicStore view on gaming entertainmentWhat we cover
on gaming entertainment.
Games as entertainment can be seen from several angles. Each card below is one we cover, focused on play as a medium.
Games as a Medium
Play standing beside film, TV, and music.
Competing for Attention
What gaming takes hours away from.
Watching vs Playing
How games became something to watch, too.
The Business of Play
An industry larger than film and music combined.
Entertainment vs Experiences
The medium versus the feeling. See gaming experiences.
Like the Music Business
The entertainment heritage behind it. See music culture.
The headline,
not the side act.
Every entertainment medium competes for the same scarce thing: people's time. Music fought for it against film and television; games now fight for it against all of them, and increasingly win. The contest is familiar even as the leader changed. What sets gaming apart is interactivity, the fact that you do it rather than only watch. Gaming entertainment is that contest, with play in front.
Gaming as entertainment overlaps all that we cover. It is delivered through streaming and powered by the creator economy, it sounds through gaming audio, and it has spawned the spectator medium of esports. Games sit at the center of how people now spend their leisure and attention.
The throughline holds: entertainment is a fight for attention, and the winner shifts over time. The medium that drew people to records and the one drawing them to games are playing the same game for the same hours. Gaming entertainment is proof that the attention contest we knew in music is now led by play, the biggest medium of the moment.
We knew the
business.
Most coverage of gaming as entertainment fixates on revenue and misses the contest for attention underneath. Ours comes from two decades inside the entertainment business: we know that every medium fights for the same hours, that interactivity gave games an edge, and that leadership in entertainment is never permanent. Understanding how a medium competes is work we did for years.
From the experiences it delivers to the wider gaming audio that carries it, from the music business it echoes to the esports spectacle it created, gaming entertainment is play as the biggest medium. We knew the entertainment business for twenty years.
Questions about
gaming entertainment.
What is gaming entertainment?
Gaming entertainment is play treated as a medium, standing alongside film, television, and music. It covers games as a form of entertainment that competes for people’s leisure time and spending, now earning more than film and recorded music combined. What sets it apart is interactivity: gaming is something you do, not only something you watch, which helps explain its rise.
Is gaming really bigger than film and music?
By revenue, yes. The games industry now earns more than the global film box office and recorded music combined, and it commands a huge share of people’s screen time. Add the billions who watch others play, and gaming’s reach is enormous. It has moved from a niche pastime to one of the dominant entertainment media of the era.
How is gaming entertainment different from gaming experiences?
Gaming entertainment is the big-picture view: games as a medium and industry competing with other entertainment. Gaming experiences are personal: what a specific game makes you feel as you play. One looks at play’s place in the entertainment landscape; the other looks at the emotional impact of a single game. They are the wide lens and the close one.
What does a music store know about gaming entertainment?
We lived in the entertainment business. From a Fort Collins store opened in 1999, we were part of an industry competing for people’s attention and money. Gaming entertainment is that same contest, now led by games instead of records, which is why a music shop reads play’s rise as a familiar story with a new winner.
Keep reading.
Take a seat.
Gaming entertainment is play as the biggest medium. See the gaming experiences it delivers, the gaming media that covers it, or the music culture we come from.