The recent evolution of the online gaming genre
Despite this recent surge in prominence, online gaming has already been evolving over the past years. From classic PC and console-based online gaming genres such as massively multiplayer games (MMO gaming) and competitive first-person shooters, online gaming has seen a boost around the early 2010s when casual social gaming became popular. During the same period, free-to-play (F2P) multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA), such as Dota2, League of Legends and Dota 2 gained mainstream popularity, followed by the emergence of the battle royale genre.As mobile connectivity and smartphone ownership increased in recent years, so did online gaming possibilities for a whole range of new gaming audiences who do not have to rely on expensive PCs, consoles, or subscriptions to play with other people. As the market for traditional online gaming titles is shrinking, cross-platform titles with focus on mobile are currently the ones pushing the genre forward. The most popular online gaming format right now is battle royale games. PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG), Fortnite, and Apex Legends generated tens of millions of players within months of their release and most recent prominent genre entry Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0 has claimed 25 million players within five days of release.