US video game industry revenue

The American household is apparently purchasing video games and pet food at the same rate, which gives us a clear and not entirely flattering picture of how free time is being spent. A person, a dog, a console, a bowl. The four horsemen of 2020.

Both boomed in 2020 for the same covid reason. Video game revenue jumped sharply as locked-down households bought consoles, games, and subscriptions in record numbers, while pet food sales surged as pandemic pet adoption broke records and remote workers splurged on their new companions. Two very different entertainment budgets, both responding to the same closed-door year.

So the correlation is the quiet sociology of a 2020 evening: one human playing, one dog eating, both indoors. Neither caused the other. Both were how the year passed.