Online games have always been popular since the launch of the internet. Even in the days of dial-up internet, people could join communities of like-minded folk and play simple games over the network such as hangman, tic tac toe and simple forum quizzes. This mentality has grown from these roots to where it is today. Large sites generating high revenue have come about during these two decades of growth. Doom, released in the early nineties, made the concept of the online death match popular. This went on to copulate, producing many more first person shooters. Many hours have been spent by many people playing such first person shooting games online. MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing games), show the success of this brand.

World of Warcraft, has 11.5 million subscriptions per month. This is also similar to the success of the social network game, Second Life. This game featured an online hosted computer generated world. Many celebrities have also been involved with this ‘Second World,’ Jimmy Carr became the first comedian to have a totally virtual gig over the platform of the internet using this game.

The concept of simple games has been made increasingly popular recently. This was mainly brought by the Nintendo DS and Apple iPhone. Users wanted a simple game to play on-the-fly. This also led to many other sites becoming well-known, such as Miniclip. This offers internet users to play simple games to fill in as much time as they require. This need for short space fillers will ensure that the business of online games sites will grow for some time. Improving internet connections on mobile phones means networked play on the go is ever increasing and looks likely to be the next big source of gaming.

For people who enjoy mindless shooting and at times a real challenge usually indulge in the zombie games market. The Google search ‘Zombie Games’ returns 82 million hits. This shows the large scale of its popularity. Similar games as these include ones with the main character as a ghost or ghoul. The popular series of games ‘Dead Rising’ also proved zombies as a viable source of content for full home console games. The two games of the series involved players being stuck in a shopping mall or Vegas-style city, whilst fighting off unlimited amounts of zombies and completing set objectives. This random feel of play ensures that players keep coming back for more of this genre of game.