US video game industry revenue

Dog treats and video games, both rising in exact harmony, gives us a picture of the modern American living room that is not, strictly speaking, flattering. There is a dog eating something expensive. There is a person playing something expensive. The dog, frankly, looks happier.

Both boomed in 2020 for the same covid reason. Video game revenue jumped sharply as locked-down households bought consoles and subscriptions in record numbers, while dog treat sales surged as pandemic pet adoption and guilty remote workers spoiled their animals with premium chews. The common variable is the hours an American household spent indoors with its own entertainment. One species gamed; the other chewed.

So the correlation is a small sociological snapshot of 2020's evenings: a controller in one hand, a dog biscuit in the other. Neither caused the other. Both were what being home looked like.