Why the next big consumer platforms are social games

We’re already seeing this unbundling of consumer platforms starting within communities that have a deep affinity and sense of identity, and are not well served by general purpose social networks – for example, gaming communities assembling in virtual worlds such as Minecraft and Roblox and using Discord to communicate, communities that coalesce aro... See more

Social networking as we know it relies on content consumed in the past tense. Photos, videos, tweets, are all a part of our lives that are captured first and then shared or consumed by others afterwards. Gaming, on the other hand, is inherently a real-time social experience, whether it is with friends playing together online or streamers broadcasti... See more

Games also continue to be a de facto social network. They’re the only kinds of social networks that don’t have to overcome strong network effects to challenge incumbent social networks. If you can consider Fortnite a “social network,” Fortnite grew to 100 million MAU faster than any conventional social network because it was bootstrapped by the gam... See more