Investors: Here's the Next Big Entertainment Trend

[Zacks | Our Research. Your Success.] WeekendWisdom Tactics that Work in Good Markets and Bad [Kevin Matras - Editor] Investors: Here's the Next Big Entertainment Trend By: David Bartosiak September 14, 2019 --------------------------------------------------------------- As the world becomes more and more digital, it's changing everything. Not just in obvious stuff like cryptocurrencies or online shopping. The digital revolution is hitting all aspects of life. Thirty years ago, the thought of someone being a professional competitive video game player would have been a joke. Nowadays, it's big business. Spectators are flocking by the millions to this new Esports phenomenon. Where those eyeballs go, the money flows. That means this new arena is bringing with it the potential for bigtime profits. Here, we'll dig through the origins of this exciting opportunity to find where this next major trend will be heading. Evolution of the Video Game I remember my dad dusting off Donkey Kong on Coleco Vision and me having a go at it. Early consoles like Atari gave gamers their first thrills. The games were very basic with classics like Pong and Breakout. Soon, arcades began popping up all over the country. Teens and adults alike would flock to the arcade to check out the newest games. The ultimate challenge, beating the high score on your favorite machine. Etching your initials in history. It became very apparent that video games were here to stay and the competitive nature of them could not be questioned. From early on, there was a social aspect to gaming despite its solitary beginnings. Games captured the imagination and brought out the competitor in all of us. Steam's Importance The advent of the internet and availability of dedicated gaming cards for PCs led to a huge swell in the PC gaming population. PC users didn't need to buy a separate console to play their favorite games. Everything was available for them to purchase on play on their home PCs. But in the early days, you still had to run into the store, buy your favorite PC game, then come home and install it using floppy disks or CDs later in the game. It all changed when Valve Corporation's Steam came along. Steam is an online community and marketplace for gaming. Users can simply purchase the games on Steam and download them directly to their computers. You can instantly read reviews about the game you are looking at, see game play videos, and buy it all in one place. Not only can users do all of the above, but they can do it while keeping in contact with their friends. Steam users can chat with each other and even play cooperatively online. Think of it as the combination of Amazon's marketplace with Facebook's community, all for gaming. This all helped lead to what the community jokingly calls the Glorious PC Master Race. Continued . . . [5 "Phenomenon" Stocks to Check Before Sunday Night]( Overlooked by most investors, video gaming including Esports is experiencing crazy growth. It's now the world's fastest growing form of entertainment. An estimated 2.5 billion people, including 2 out of every 3 Americans already take part in it. One of its key events has surpassed the World Series and NBA Finals in viewership, and has almost caught the Super Bowl. Fortunes could be made by early investors. That's why Zacks just released a Special Report with 5 stocks to ride this phenomenon. To encourage fast action and limit the first wave of buying, the deadline to download is September 15 - midnight Sunday. [See 5 stocks now  »]( Games that Have Gained Popularity on Steam With the advent of this online community and marketplace, individual games began to grow in popularity exponentially. Rather than buying yourself a one-player game like Tetris, gamers were buying games they could get on play with their friends. Co-operative missions ballooned into five-on-five team play games. This trend continues on today with some games like Fortnite offering 100 player free-for-alls. The size and scope of online games kept growing. This led to incredible popularity of games where people from all over the world could compete against each other. The first Steam game to reach 1 million daily active players was Dota 2 in early 2015. Dota is a multiplayer online battle arena game developed by the owners of Steam, Valve Corp. The game is played five-on-five, which each team defending a base. It's a sort of capture the flag type game where each player controls a character known as a "hero." Each hero has different strengths and weaknesses. Hanging just below Dota in popularity Counter-Strike: Global Offensive was another immensely popular game. CSGO is a multiplayer first-person shooter game, co-developed by Valve Corp and Hidden Path Entertainment. Released in August 2012, CSGO pits two teams against each other. It's the modern version of Cowboys and Indians, the teams are Terrorists versus Counter-Terrorists. Dota's dominance finally ended in August 2017 when Playerunknown's Battlegrounds claimed the top spot. PUBG captivated audiences with its online multiplayer battle royale. Each match begins with players parachuting in from a plane onto one of the four maps. Players start with no gear, then have to quickly search through buildings in order to uncover weapons, armor and other equipment. The maps start out large, then begin to shrink down towards a random location. This forces interaction between players and ultimately, ends with the survival of the fittest. How to Get Invested There's no question that video games are big business. And that business is growing bigger every day. With its cult-like following and global reach, this industry is the fastest growing area of entertainment. There are a handful of companies perfectly positioned to profit in this burgeoning business. By using the Zacks Rank, you can uncover the best stocks in this industry. These stocks have a strong, positive earnings trend that delivers consistent EPS. That can lead to some of the biggest profits for investors. An Even Easier Place to Start I have personally combed through a massive list of stocks that stand to grow with video games and Esports, and narrowed the list to just 5. These are solid investments now and have extreme growth potential in months and years to come. You can access them simply by downloading our just-released Special Report, [Investor's Guide to Esports: 5 Stocks for Major League Profit Plays](. It guides you through this booming space and spotlights what I've named the best stocks to take advantage of it: 1. Computer hardware giant with a new generation of products 2. Manufacturer of peripherals for gamers with features that stand out above competitors 3. Parent company of one of the world's most downloaded games 4. Game developer on the cusp of what looks to be a monster turnaround 5. Foreign internet tech company with an almost limitless upside Deadline Approaching We want to limit the number of investors who get in on the early wave of buying for these 5 stocks so this special offer will be withdrawn midnight Sunday, September 15. [Click here to get Zacks' Esports Investor's Guide today »]( Good Investing, [David Bartosiak - signature] David Bartosiak Dave, a Zacks Stock Strategist, shares his expertise in detecting new trends and tracking momentum and earnings surprises. He invites you to check his new picks in [Esports Investor's Guide: 5 Stocks for Major League Profit Plays](. ¹ The results for the companies listed above are not (or may not be) representative of the performance of all selections made by Zacks Investment Research's newsletter editors. This free resource is being sent by [Zacks.com](. 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