30 Under 30 In Games 2021: From The Studio To The Stream, Meet Gaming’s Playmakers

30 Under 30 In Games 2021: From The Studio To The Stream, Meet Gaming’s Playmakers

Gaming's next generation is more influential than ever, and everyone—from consumers to investors to politicians—is taking notice.

Locked down at home thanks to the pandemic, people are turning to games more than ever. An all-time high 82% of consumers around the world are playing video games or watching gaming content, according to research from Nielsen, providing the perfect platform to shine for the 2021 Forbes 30 Under 30 in Games.

With a unique ecosystem, the games industry allows a wide variety of creatives to thrive, from the esports athletes and streamers who play the games to the founders and indie designers who make them. That includes Yang Liu, cofounder and CEO of End Game Interactive, which develops simple but addictive multiplayer games including ZombsRoyale.io, which is slated to bring in $4 million in revenue this year with the help of its 65 million players who game on iOS, Android, PC or the web.

“We saw how lovable something like Zombs was,” Liu says. “There are people with over 8,000 hours played and it's a memorable part of their experience growing up while they're in middle school, high school, college.”

A Chinese immigrant who grew up on free internet browser games from Neopets to Runescape,