Blogging Vs. Gaming Comparison

Posted on October 19, 2005

What's bigger and generates more money: blogging or gaming? Answer: gaming.

One game alone -- World of Warcraft (WOW) -- has over 4 million paid subscribers. Very few blogs have any paid subscribers. Jason Kottke is one of the few bloggers who runs his blog on paid contributions. Kottke won't say exactly how many paid donations he received but his numbers are likely dwarfed by WOW's massive number of subscribers. A recent study found that there are over 120 million PC gamers in the U.S. -- one country alone has more gamers than the number of bloggers worldwide.

There are articles that the $10 billion gaming industry has even surpassed Hollywood, but the Hollywood figures used do not usually account for DVD rentals and sales. Movies are now being made that are based on games like the Halo film.

However, there are some similarities -- gaming has people that suffer from gaming addiction just like bloggers suffer from blogging addiction. Wikipedia says some teenagers spend as much as 3 hours a day playing video games and there are some bloggers that easily spend that much time blogging, if not more.

Many gamers are, of course, also bloggers and/or blog readers so there is some crossover. Virtual worlds like the Sims and Second Life could also allow blogs inside games -- if they don't already. Boing Boing blogger Cory Doctorow even had once of his novels displayed inside the online gaming world of Second Life making for a gaming, publishing and blogging industry crossover.

Despite the sheer number of gamers and the massive amount of revenue generated by games one can argue that blogging is more influential on society because of its huge impact already on the media and its impact on politics and science. While you might find the occasional game with a message most games are pure profit-driven entertainment. However, the blogosphere generates a never-ending steam of ideas, thoughts and opinions. So, so far in this rather ineffectual comparison, gaming wins in numbers and sales but blogging wins in influence.