The Christian Video Game Industry

The music industry is worth just shy of $27 billion per year. Global box office for in-theater movies was $34 billion last year. The book publishing industry makes about $44 billion per year, as a whole. The global sports industry is a cut above, pulling in approximately $159 billion dollars a year.

But even sports, with its mass appeal across cultures, is not the king of entertainment in 2024.

That title goes to video games, a $184 billion industry last year (or even $250 billion, according to some sources), and projected to grow substantially by the end of the decade.

Video games, whether you play them or not, are big business.

Consider that the most expensive movie ever made was Disney’s 2015 release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, with an eye-popping $447 million budget. Only two other films have ever cracked the $400 million mark, and only a handful have ever passed $300 million. On average, a big Hollywood blockbuster is going to cost around $100 million to make.

Grand Theft Auto VI, a highly anticipated video game from Rockstar Games, reportedly has a budget of $2 billion.

Yes, you read that right, and no, that isn’t a typo.

Billion. With a “B.”

As crazy as the numbers sound, it’s money well spent when you consider that the previous installment in the series brought in $8 billion in revenue on a budget of $265 million. Some experts expect GTA VI to earn $1.5 billion in its first 24 hours on the market.

People like video games, and they’re willing to shell out the cash to play the latest and greatest.

So the industry looks different from other segments of entertainment in terms of absolute economic value, but perhaps it differs in another way, too.

You think of the music industry, and it’s easy to think about CCM, gospel music, the Dove Awards, etc. You think about movies, and Christian media has the Erwin brothers of Kingdom Story Company, Pureflix, Angel Studios, etc. Christians dominate entire categories of the publishing industry, bringing in big revenue from self-help books, devotionals, Christian fiction, etc. But when we get to video games… What is there? Are there any Christian video games? And do there need to be?

We talked with some experts to find out…

The dating scene has changed quite a bit in the last decade or two, with demographic data now stating that 12% of currently married couples met their spouses online, and nearly 3 in 10 adults report having used online dating apps - and over 50% of US adults under 30 have used them. It’s no wonder, then, that this trend on online matchmaking has spawned such a robust industry. In 2022, the online dating industry brought in $7.2 billion in revenue, with $3.4 billion of that coming from just one entity: Match Group (which owns Tinder, OkCupid, PlentyofFish, Match.com, and more). These apps, which naturally involve a transitory customer base, typically employ a “freemium” monetization strategy, and at present, it is estimated that roughly 35% of all dating app users have paid for premium features, usually in the form of a weekly or monthly subscription fee…

The commodities market has seen some shake-ups recently, as OPEC extends oil production cuts into 2025, cryptocurrency Ethereum may soon be treated as a commodity by the SEC, and we face a massive copper shortage in the near future. Chocolate prices continue to soar (over 300% in the last three months), leaving some to ask if chocolate could soon become a luxury good. Corn futures, on the other hand, have been falling steadily for the past week, down about 6% as of Monday…

According to the Wall Street Journal, the “A.I. Revolution” is already losing steam. The technological capabilities of many of these A.I. have, in many cases, been faked in order to convince investors that they were more advanced than they really were. The true usefulness of these technologies has now been called into question, since it is clear that A.I. still needs knowledgeable humans to, at minimum, check their work and make corrections. WSJ points out that the pace of innovation and improvement in existing A.I. has slowed tremendously, the technology is incredibly costly in terms of energy and money, and the relatively small amount of revenue produced thus far makes you wonder if the massive investment will ever pay off…

Your weekly chance to test your Bible knowledge! The answer to today’s question may surprise you:

Did You Know?

The Bible is FULL of deliberate parallelism, often telling stories that repeat one another to give the reader another perspective or to further reveal the heart of the matter. So in Genesis, for example, The Flood story is a sort of retelling of the story of Creation. Noah’s Injury and Cursing of Canaan parallels Cain and Abel. The Tower of Babel is like the Flood story again. Isaac’s story is like Abraham’s story, but Isaac is able to overcome temptation where Abraham fell to it. Keep an eye out for similarities between stories – they are on purpose!

“Dear Lord, today I’m seeking 3 years of financial prosperity, favor with my boss, and a smokin’ hot wife in exchange for 10% of my earnings”

TIPS & TRICKS

Book Recommendation

Pastor Steve Perry found himself in a pickle.

He had always considered it more virtuous to be poor than wealthy. He thought that people who were materially rich were an affront to God, and he, in all of his piety, would dedicate his life to ministry, not filthy lucre.

But God has a sense of humor, doesn’t He?

Steve fell in love with a wonderful woman and married her… only to find out that they were extremely, extremely wealthy. Suddenly, Steve was facing an identity crisis, a doctrinal crisis, and very real questions of faithful stewardship and financial management that had never anticipated before…

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• Former President Donald Trump was convicted of 34 felony counts in New York on charges that have been called spurious by many legal efforts. In the 24 hours following his conviction, the Trump campaign raised over $50 million. As of Monday, he had raised over $200 million.

• Big news in entertainment, as Paramount and Skydance have agreed to terms in a merger deal.

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• Pew Research reports that the middle class is shrinking.