In just three days, the highly anticipated video game Red Dead Redemption 2 grossed $725 million, making it the highest-grossing opening weekend for any entertainment product – ever. In popular entertainment, nothing is bigger than video games. Marvel’s “Avengers: Infinity War” grossed about $640 million worldwide in its opening weekend, to put the numbers into context. Video game culture is expanding rapidly, but many people still believe video games are at best a guilty pleasure, and at worst a “destructive hobby for socially stunted young men”. It is understandable that non-video games players think video games have nothing important to say in terms of a valuable story line. But in the case of Red Dead Redemption 2, they are wrong. According to the New York Times, “If ever a video game has risen to the level of those classics, it’s Red Dead Redemption 2. With an enormous production budget, seven years of development and a script running about 2,000 pages just for the main story, it might well be the most ambitious game ever made.”

The pureness of the games’ story line is what brings many people to purchasing this game, but for others, the realness of the game graphics is what convinces people to buy the game. The game was created on a next generation video game creator engine, which is why the game is so beautiful. With miles and miles of in game ground to travel across, there are an unlimited number of things to do in this game world. Wildlife roams the countryside, growing skittish if you move too close. Many video games allow players to interact with other characters only by attacking them; here, every character, even the least important digital extra, can be spoken to, and often conversed with at length, showing just how dedicated the video game creator, Rockstar Entertainment, really is in terms of keeping their gamers entertained.

Are video games getting more popular? Yes, although video games have been around for decades, going back to the early 70’s, they continue to gain more popularity every year. Video games are getting more sophisticated, encouraging people to spend often a decent amount of money in order to immerse themselves in a truly captivating story line.