Hypercasual and Hybrid-Casual Video Gaming: A Digital Leisure Perspective

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of hypercasual and hybrid-casual video gaming and their influence on digital leisure. Existing sport and leisure scholarship on video gaming has focused primarily on competitive video gaming, namely esports. However, among the most popular competitive video games are simple and easy to play titles – hypercasual and hybrid-casual games. In this conceptual article, a digital leisure perspective is used to examine hypercasual and hybrid-casual gaming. To address the study’s purpose, the growth, gameplay, and consumption practices of hypercasual and hybrid-casual games are outlined. The current article supports that the intuitive nature and design of these games increases their appeal and adoption, particularly by those marginalized by the digital divide. Hypercasual and hybrid-casual video games reflect trends in digital leisure activities, including participant preferences favoring simplicity over sophistication, providing a novel perspective in contrast to increasingly complex forms of digital leisure.

Keywords:

• Digital leisure
• esports
• hypercasual
• hybrid-casual
• sport
• video games

Notes

1 These mainstream genres include battle royale, sport simulations, first-person shooters (FPS), massive online battle arenas (MOBAs), real-time strategy (RTS), and fighting (Baker & Pizzo, 2021). These genres of esports require intense cognitive and physical dexterity, such as rapid actions per minutes (APM) and extensive training and practice (Jang & Byon, 2020).

2 The United Nations International Telecommunications Union estimates that there are over 8 billion active mobile phones in the world, a figure which is roughly equivalent to the world’s total population (Mäyrä & Alha, 2020).

3 ICTs is an umbrella term which refers to a variety of digital communication technologies (e.g., smartphones, social networking platforms) and how said technologies can support integrated communication (Milakovich, 2012).

4 The Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S (or collectively referred to as Xbox Series X/S) are home video gaming consoles (or systems) released in 2020.

5 The sports genre of video games exemplifies this practice, where annual sport video game franchises, such as Madden NFL and FIFA, build on the base version of each year’s title.

6 Digital literacy refers to an individual’s ability to use digital devices to search, find, and communicate digital information (Eshet, 2004) through the use of ICTs.

7 Notably, Knezovic (2022b) uses the term “hyper-casual” to collectively refer to both hypercasual and hybrid-casual games and gamers. However, the figures provided were based upon mobile video games with meta-elements and are applicable to hybrid-casual games/gamers.

8 Intrapersonal constraints are internal to an individual and limit the development of leisure preferences (Alexandris et al., 2007).