Tens of thousands of high school students these days are facing what will undoubtedly be the great dilemma of their professional lives: what career to study after having passed the High School Assessment for University Access (EBAU). The decision will depend, either on the vocation, or on the professional opportunities that, in theory, the different careers have. If until now, among the most demanded studies were Medicine and Biomedicine, Nursing or ADE, for some time now new airs are blowing among the vocational professions.
Where do these new professional aspirations come from? Well, nothing more and nothing less than the video game and gaming sector. And it is that its boom as mass entertainment has also served to promote new specialized professions that range from content creation to game development. According to the 'III Radiography of Gaming in Spain', an annual study promoted by the Spanish e-commerce, PcComponentes, which shows that 90.2% of Generation Z gamers (between the ages of eight and 23) ) considers these professional opportunities as options with a future.
90.2% of Generation Z gamers consider professional opportunities related to video games as options with a future. The consolidation of the latest trends such as cloud gaming, eSports or virtual reality offers new opportunities for a sector that launches an average of 1,000 games per year and, therefore, for new specialized professions. Thus, the video game industry (39%) and content creation (34%) are, according to the study, the professional opportunities most desired by young Spanish gamers, far ahead of other traditionally aspirational sectors such as health (17 %), professional sports (16%) or scientific disciplines (14%).
In parallel, the IEBS Business School ranking says that in the coming years, parents will get used to hearing that their sons and daughters want to be professional gamers, designers, developers and testers of video games, executive producers, eSports marketing specialists and organizers. of eSports events, content creators, eSports analysts or commentators, the ten most demanded professions in the sector.
“In our 18-year history, we have accompanied and advised thousands of gaming fans, and we know that they live their coexistence with video games with great passion. Many of the youngest are now going much further and want to make the most of this passion, decisively turning it into a guide for their professional future”, points out Alicia Vicente, PcComponentes PcComponentes Head of Communication and Brand.
All this, in a context in which there are more than 120,000 unfilled jobs in the new technologies sector in Spain due to a lack of suitable profiles, according to a study by DigitalES, the employers' association that brings together the main telecommunications operators in the country. . The creation of new professions associated with technology that would be covered by these vocational professionals would thus contribute to reducing this gap.
This new trend in the labor market associated with video games is not surprising if we take into account that this sector had a turnover of 1,795 million euros in 2021 -2.75% more than the previous year-, with which Spain ranked as one of the top ten world markets for the sector, according to data from the Spanish Video Game Association (AEVI).
A boom that has done nothing but change the conception and the very raison d'être of video games. This is also corroborated by the PcComponentes study, which says that 25% of Spanish video game fans (30% if they belong to Generation Z) prefer to watch broadcast games rather than consume other types of content on streaming platforms. In addition, 18% of Spanish gamers prefer to watch other players' games rather than play themselves, 20% in the case of younger fans.
Likewise, the trend of broadcasting the games themselves is gaining momentum: 14% of the players already do so. "Videogames are not a static leisure, but a phenomenon in constant growth and evolution that seeks to position itself as entertainment for an ever greater number of people", points out from the Murcian company, Alicia Vicente, who continues: "We are experiencing greater diversity of entertainment options through gaming that goes beyond the game itself thanks to a greater interest in streaming and associated audiovisual content".
On the other hand, video games have become a daily leisure option in small doses for fans. Nearly half of the gamers spend between one and two hours a day playing, 26% do not reach the daily hour of play and 19% usually spend between two and three hours a day. For 72%, video games are "entertainment" and for 40% "an escape route from daily stress".
Among the main curiosities to dedicate themselves to video games is entertaining millions of people with the content generated (34%) and being part of the development of a great video game (36%). Young people point to Ibai Llanos (48%) and El Rubius (35.7%) as the public figures who have contributed the most to the professional rise of gaming, thanks to the visibility they have given video games as entertainment and mass spectacle.
In our country there are more than 18 million gamers, almost half of whom are women and, contrary to what we usually think, 50% of users are over 35 years of age. However, in the labor market, they still represent less than 20% of the people dedicated to the development of video games in Spain, according to AEVI.
The study by the Spanish company highlights the trust in online commerce by users, which is the preferred purchase channel for 68% of Spanish gamers. One in four consider expert advice and the solution of doubts as a decisive factor when opting for a specific store.
The computer (58%) and the console (54%) continue to outpace the smartphone/tablet (27%) as the platforms preferred by users to play. Among other factors, there is the greater possibility of updating components that this type of device offers. An important factor, considering that 61% of video game fans renew their equipment every two years at most and 27% do it annually. Motherboards and graphics cards (44%) are the components that tend to be renewed most frequently.
