US video game industry revenue

That board games and video games surged together, rather than the latter eating the former as one might expect, is the kind of result that forces us to reconsider what we thought we knew about the future. The future, apparently, contains both. It is held in a living room.

Both boomed in 2020 because of the same lockdown. Video game revenue leapt as housebound consumers bought consoles and subscriptions in record numbers, while board game sales surged as families rediscovered the dining-room table and the pleasures of shouting at each other about Catan trading rules. The pandemic didn't force a choice between screens and cardboard — it rewarded both.

So the correlation is a small comfort: people still gather, still compete, still argue over rules, even when the world is frightening. The platforms multiplied; the games remained. Play, briefly, was the point.