Digital online entertainment is taking the world by storm, and Canada is no exception.
For many Canadians, many, if not all of their sources of entertainment today can be found online.
Whether they enjoy streaming movies and TV shows, playing multiplayer games with vast scopes or exploring the thriving virtual communities that exist on live-streaming services, there are many different options for entertainment online today.
This article will break down some of Canada’s most popular online entertainment pastimes and give a simple overview of the different options that Canadians are choosing to occupy their free time with.
Online casino gaming
While it might not be everyone’s cup of tea, online casinos are quite popular in Canada. With Canada having a tradition of accepting casinos and gambling as a fact of life and a pastime in which adults are free to participate, it is no surprise that the online gambling industry in Canada would also be fairly robust.
While it can be difficult to nail down exactly what Canada’s favorite online casino experience might be, everything from virtual slot machines to live-dealer poker and blackjack games are well enjoyed by Canadians.
Playing at an online casino is somewhat more popular than playing at a physical establishment. The key reason for this is likely very simple, ease of access. Some Canadians who might otherwise enjoy playing at physical casinos might have to travel hours or into other provinces to enjoy some time at a blackjack table. Enter the online casino industry. With just a mobile phone, many different online casino providers and all manner of different casino games become available right from the comfort of your living room couch.
Video-on-demand services
This is a favorite amongst many countries in the world today. Services like Netflix, Amazon Prime and Disney+ are incredibly popular options for entertainment. We’re sure you understand how these services work, but just in case you’re out of the loop we’ll break it down in simple terms. These video-on-demand services gather together huge libraries of movies and TV shows and then use subscription-based models to allow people access to those libraries. Shows and movies will rotate in and out of the catalogue offered by the various different services and most of them also produce their own shows and movies of various qualities and success.
While all of these services essentially offer the same thing, just with a different flavor, some of them have a higher quality of service or a larger library or in some way attempt to offer more to their customers. These services are the Blockbuster Video’s of today and are every bit as popular as Blockbuster was at its height, if not more so. Thousands of Canadians tune in to watch shows and movies on various services every day.
Video games and esports
Over the last two decades, the video gaming industry has become more and more sophisticated and the offerings that players can enjoy today are some of the best games ever made. Particularly among young Canadians, video games are the entertainment option of choice, with consoles and handheld gaming devices at an all-time high in popularity. While there are many amazing single-player gaming experiences for players to enjoy, multiplayer gaming is the king of the hill and playing those games necessitates being online.
With the meteoric rise of the gaming industry, video games have for many become more than just a pastime to sink some free time into. Many people have gotten serious about gaming and the explosion of the esports industry is tantamount to that fact. Esports tournaments are big business and big money for those lucky enough to rank high or win. With some tournaments attracting massive audiences and offering prize pools in the millions, the age of the professional gamer has come and there is even a federally recognised not-for-profit Canadian organisation that spearheads Canadian esports players to play on the global stage and represent their country.
Streaming and video sharing
Another very popular option for entertainment amongst younger Canadians is video streaming and sharing. The most popular platform for live-streaming video content is undoubtedly Twitch. Twitch started as mostly a video game streaming platform but has branched out into so much more. Today there is all sorts of different content being streamed on the Amazon-owned service. You can find streams of people painting and giving art tips, homemade cooking shows, streams of NASA rocket launches and streams of African safari park night patrols. Likely as not, you can find something that will interest you on the platform. There are, of course, many Canadian streamers that are popular on the platform.
As for video-sharing platforms, YouTube is still the king in that arena. With content as varied as acanadanything you can imagine, YouTube has more hours of video content uploaded to it than any one person could watch in their lifetime. Whatever you might be interested in, from science to gardening to music videos, YouTube has plenty of content for you to watch relating to it.
We aren’t prepared to say exactly which of these is more popular than the others, but it’s certain that they are all popular with different demographics. What we are sure of is that online entertainment in Canada is more diverse than ever before, and no matter what you are interested in, there are certainly some online entertainment options tailored to you.