Why Video Games Are the Most Important Cultural Form of the Century
June 20, 2026 · Frisian News
Video game revenue hit $184 billion globally in 2025, dwarfing film and music combined, yet institutions still dismiss them as juvenile entertainment. The gap between market reality and critical respect shows that gatekeepers fear losing control.
Video game revenue surpassed film and music combined globally in 2025. Players spent more hours with games last year than many realise, yet film critics still dismiss games as entertainment for teenage boys in basements. That gap between market reality and cultural perception reveals something useful: our institutions adapt slower than the culture itself.
The contempt for games comes from somewhere specific. Film critics, university literature departments, and legacy media outlets built their authority on judging "serious" art. Games threaten that gatekeeping. They cannot be understood through film theory or literary criticism alone. A critic trained only in traditional narrative cannot evaluate game design, systems, or player choice. Rather than learn new tools, institutions dismiss the medium as juvenile. That protects their relevance and their funding.
Games do something no other medium can: they put the player inside a decision-making role. Film forces you to watch. Music forces you to listen. Games force you to think, choose, and face consequences. The best games explore philosophical questions, historical events, or moral dilemmas through interaction. You do not observe the trolley problem from a distance; you must pull the lever yourself. That changes how the problem lives in your mind.
The gaming industry itself is fragmented and competitive in ways film never was. No single studio dominates the way Disney dominates film. That creates space for independent creators and niche audiences. Yet mainstream criticism of games still comes from people who have never played seriously. They inherit the dismissal from their predecessors. Academic study of games is still young; the tools exist, but universities move slowly. Schools of film, literature, and music have centuries of institutional weight. Game studies has decades.
In 50 years, historians will look back at this moment and ask why cultural institutions clung so hard to the past. Then people now in their 20s will run those institutions. They grew up with games, not despite them. When that generation controls the conversation, the contempt will seem quaint. The only question is whether legacy institutions adapt, or whether they become irrelevant first.
Published June 20, 2026 · Frisian News