How Do Seasonal Events Sustain Interest in Gaming Year-Round?

Everyone loves a good holiday period and it’s a time when game developers and gambling sites typically kick things up into high gear. Because of the natural excitement surrounding special occasions like Halloween and Christmas, businesses use these seasonal events to their advantage. By tapping into the festivities, they can drum up extra attention, knowing that people are more likely to dip into their pockets when a holiday comes around.

While video game developers may use things like special seasonal maps or avatar additions, online casinos typically launch special promotions for a relevant holiday. Such offers are common on the top platforms listed at https://legalcasino.uk/ and other trusted sites that review and compare operators and their incentives.

The Big Business of Seasonal Events

Think of a toy shop around Christmas time – it is going to be one of their busiest times of the entire year. To further push sales, they will have lots of special deals and all sorts of promotional material going around. Essentially annual holidays like Christmas, Easter and Halloween are gifts that keep on giving and the video game and online casino industries tap into this as well.

The main reason why seasonal events are so powerful is because they tap into emotional associations that are already in place. People are typically in better spirits around the holidays which are often tinged with nostalgia and sentiments.

Someone may have fond memories of when they got their first video game console at Christmas and want to revisit that warm, fuzzy feeling in the present by getting the latest seasonal addition to whatever game they are currently playing.

That ties in with another important factor, because around the holidays, people have more time off. That greater amount of spare time lets them indulge in their hobbies like online gambling and MMORPG battles. 

Time Limitations

Seasonal events are also short-lived and that can drive more players to get involved. If there is, for example, a special winter map that’s been released in a video game, and players know that they are only going to have 30 days to enjoy it, they are going to hit it hard during that period.

Similarly, if there is only two weeks to snap up a special Halloween avatar in a game’s store, it can drive a flurry of action from users to get it. Essentially all of this ties into the fear of missing out (FOMO) where a sense of urgency to get exclusive rewards is just heightened because of the buzz of opportunities in getting them, being so limited.

Seasonal events are a great time for content creators and a brilliant time for marketing. They give businesses something tangible to attract attention to through social media channels.

Seasonal Turnover

The turnover of seasons within video games is a very common thing. Rocket League, for example, has churned out Haunted Hallows and Frosty Fest for Halloween and Christmas respectively, annually giving players something to look forward to.

Overwatch 2 has ramped up the spooky vibe before with Halloween Terror, altering maps to fit in with the theme. The game has had other seasonal innovations like Junkenstein’s Revenge and Trials of Sanctuary, plus huge Christmas makeovers with game modes like Freeze Thaw Elimination and Mei’s Snowball Offensive.

Call of Duty: Warzone is another title that has consistently produced seasonal events like 2020’s Haunting of Verdansk where supply crates came with jumpscares, and of course, Fortnite which has tapped into this element of gaming with events like Winterfest and Fortnite Mares.

The Casino Approach

But how do online casinos tap into the seasonal events? They don’t have the scope to change things as dramatically as video game titles do, but what they commonly do is produce seasonal-based promotional offers giving away things like free spins, or special time-limited welcome bonuses.

During seasonal events, online casinos typically promote slots that are relevant, like Frozen Gems, Scrooge Megaways and Winterberries Slot during Christmas. During Halloween that could be Halloween Jack, Book of Halloween and Big Bass Halloween.

These are games that will likely be available in the online casino’s catalogue all year around, but they will just be pushed up to the front page during a relevant season for players to see, encouraging them to get into the spirit of the season.

Season Novelties

From Lunar New Year to Christmas, Halloween and Easter, the video game and online casino industries use seasonal events to sustain year-round gaming interest in their products.

These basically serve as promotional events which give casinos and video games the chance to inject something relevant and engaging into a familiar setup. This can help to attract new players, and encourage existing ones to engage just that little bit more than usual.