Don't Like Video Game Stocks? This Might Change Your Mind

Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ: ATVI) -- which owns eight games with at least $1 billion in lifetime sales -- reported that gamers spent about 43 billion hours playing its games in 2016, which was on par with time people spent on Netflix and about double the time spent on Snap Inc.'s popular Snapchat app.

What this demonstrates is that once a game company creates a deeply immersive gaming experience, it can create a very powerful competitive offering in the world of entertainment. Certain games like Activision Blizzard's Overwatch and Take-Two Interactive's (NASDAQ: TTWO) Grand Theft Auto can become very addictive, which creates a powerful network effect as millions of people gravitate toward the games they see everyone else playing on game streaming sites, such as Amazon.com's (NASDAQ: AMZN) Twitch.tv or YouTube.

Games offer compelling value relative to other entertainment options, and part of that value proposition is a single game's ability to tap into different markets where people like to spend their time, such as sports, social media, and watching TV and movies.

Source: Fool.com