Social Media's Influence on the Animation and Gaming Industry

Like in many other industries, social media has played a large role in expanding their reach to a larger audience. In many cases, it resulted in a rise in popularity, the expansion to mainstream media, and an increase in revenue.

One prominent example of this phenomenon is the rise of Japanese animation into mainstream Western media. Japanese animation saw a massive growth in popularity thanks to the influence of TikTok, starting in 2017 as that was the year the app launched it's platform internationally. Trending songs and dances by large creators and celebrities like Michael B Jordan and Megan Thee Stallion helped popularize this type of media. Before this, the genre of animation was often stigmatized and stereotyped because it wasn't a popular Western media in the early 2000s. As a result, large animation studios who were already well know among international fans and their native audiences saw a large growth in revenue as the demand for the media increased. Brands immediately were drawn in by the marketing potential of this new trend and often created collaborations that featured products and popular Japanese series with inspired clothes, cosmetics, limited drinks, and more.

Video games also saw a similar growth in popularity thanks to social media. With this newfound momentum, new genres in video games began to emerge, older genres and styles started to make a comeback, and a newfound focus on video game art by small indie creators gained attention. A key factor in the popularization of video games among a younger audience and non-gamers is largely in part due to YouTube as many gaming content creators uploaded videos that showcased gameplay mechanics and player interaction. Two key elements that help set video games apart from other forms of media like movies. People who watch these YouTube videos typically do so for one of two reasons; to learn more about the game or to be entertained. Some gaming Youtubers focused on creating content that reviews, analyzes, or created game theories of the game itself. While others focus on the creation of Lets Play videos within the gaming YouTube genre. These types of videos are essentially entire playthroughs of a video game (typically an adventure or story-focused game) and is accompanied by commentary by the Youtuber. The popularization of video games to mainstream entertainment had inevitably led to a shift within the industry as a whole. Rather than having a flow of revenue that just came from the sales of the game alone, this development opened the doors to an inflow of revenue coming from content creation by Youtubers and other streamers. 

Overall, its clear that social media has played a large role in bringing video games and Japanese animation into the mainstream and popularizing it on a global scale. We can expect to see this type of continuous growth in both these industries and in other more niche interests as well as the significant influence of social media continuous to expand in our everyday lives.